Harden & Sophia McConnell An informal collection of photos and memories prepared for the celebration of the Inaugural Caltech Harden M. McConnell Lecture, April 24, 2018, and for future lectures in this series. Assembled by O. Hayes Griffith, Ph.D., 1965 with help and encouragement from Sophia and Jane McConnell, and Alvin Kwiram, Ph.D., 1963, and Gerald Liebling, Ph.D. 1965. Griffith, Kwiram, and Liebling were students of Harden McConnell at Caltech. 1 A glimpse at the personal side of their lives at Caltech, showing that this is more than a place where important scientific discoveries are made. Caltech is also a supportive community of scientists, staff, students, and their families. Harden as a Caltech Graduate Student 1947-1951 “On arrival at Caltech in 1947, I immediately went to see Linus Pauling and indicated I would like to be a theoretical chemist, meaning I wanted to work on molecular electronic structure problems.” “Linus said that if I wanted to be a theoretical chemist I would need to know all there was to know about chemistry, physics and biology. For a moment I thought he was joking, but after looking at him a second time, I realized that he was serious.”   Harden McConnell, Ann. Rev. Biophysics. 39, 1 (2010) Linus Pauling Credit: NIH 2 Harden as a Caltech Graduate Student “I then went to see John Kirkwood, who asked me what I knew about Hilbert space. I said I didn’t know much about Hilbert space, which was an exaggeration. I had never heard of Hilbert space.” “I began to suspect that I was going to be in serious trouble at Caltech.” “I was saved by Norman Davidson, who presented me with an interesting, understandable, and practical research problem.” John Kirkwood Credit: American Institute of Physics Norman Davidson Credit: Caltech Archives 3 Harden at play Harden wrote on this photo: “A good close-up of the entrance channel”. Small sign on cockpit: This boat is not allowed in ocean or entrance channel Credit: Sophia and Jane McConnell 4 Harden with friends in Pasadena Harden = “Mac” Harden (right) with friends at Palomar Observatory Credit: Sophia and Jane McConnell 5 Harden is called back to Caltech in 1956 by Linus Pauling to be a member of the Chemistry faculty. Harden with visitor, Andrew McLachlan. The McConnell home in background: 2062 New York Drive, Altadena, CA. 3 miles north of Caltech. Credit: Sophia and Jane McConnell 6 Harden and Sophia were married 10-6-1956 Sophia McConnell and boys – Hunter & Trevor Sophia with Hunter Harden, Trevor and Hunter Credit: Sophia and Jane McConnell Credit: Sophia and Jane McConnell 7 And then came Jane: Trevor, Jane and Hunter McConnell Credit: Sophia and Jane McConnell 8 Harden McConnell gave a pre-arranged Department of Physics seminar at Caltech within hours of Jane’s birth Richard Feynman was sitting in the front row and started asking penetrating questions. What did Harden McConnell do? McConnell took the long spear-like pointer lying on the table, and rotated it, so that it pointed at Feynman. With each question, Harden advanced the tip of the pointer towards him. Soon the questions stopped. Both men were in good humor. Richard Feynman Photo date: 1974, Credit: Caltech Archives 9 Hunter Scott McConnell Born 7/7/57 Trevor Marsden Davidson McConnell Born 11/21/58 Jane Roberts McConnell Born 2/14/63 John D. “Jack” Roberts Credit: NY Times Norman Davidson Credit: Caltech Archives Trevor’s and Jane’s middle names honor Caltech faculty 10 Harden McConnell on Caltech Faculty 1956-1964 – A rising star Background: In the late 1950s and early 1960s commercial NMR and ESR spectrometers became widely available to chemists in academic and industrial laboratories. McConnell provided links between theory of molecular structure and the new NMR and ESR data, and made discoveries in the laboratory. He derived simple equations that made it possible for scientists in many fields to advance their own work. Awards for work largely done at Caltech: California Section Award of the ACS (1961) National ACS Award in Pure Chemistry (1962) Election to the National Academy of Sciences (1965) 11 Caltech Chemistry Faculty in the McConnell era Mac Norman Davidson Credit: National Academy Press Mac’s lab in basement West end of the Laboratories of Gates and Crellin. Photo from Big T 1961 yearbook. Credit: Caltech Archives Linus Pauling Credit: Caltech Archives 12 Sunney Chan 1967 Credit: S. Chan Why did Harden McConnell leave Caltech? “I moved from CIT to Stanford University with great reluctance; both are great institutions with strong chemistry departments and great faculty.”  “I moved because I had a strong distaste for the LA smog prevalent at that time.  Had it not been for the smog, I would have certainly stayed at CIT” Source: “Research Studies of Harden M. McConnell” Hardenmcconnell.org 13 Smog in the LA – Pasadena Area. View of Pasadena from hills above Rose Bowl (2011). The air pollution is significantly reduced. L.A. Civic Center masked by smog. (1948) Important Lesson: We must strive to protect our environment Credit: UCLA Library Credit: Brigham Yen 14 Sophia and Harden McConnell 1990, Mt. Rainier WA Credit: Alvin Kwiram 15 Names of all McConnell graduate students and postdocs at Caltech were inscribed on tiles by scientist-artist Dr. Karen Mason-Kiemle Caltech students’ names inscribed on blue tiles. Credit: Alvin Kwiram 16 Names of Caltech postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars on green tiles. Credit: Karen Mason-Kiemle 17 Green bench with names of all McConnell postdocs and visiting scholars, Caltech and Stanford. The tiles are all “fired” and thus permanent. The two Benches were finished in 2015 and are currently located at the McConnell home in Atherton CA. Sophia McConnell and Karen Mason-Kiemle (artist, right) sitting on the finished blue bench which has names of all McConnell’s graduate students (Caltech and Stanford). Karen earned her PhD at Stanford in Harden’s lab. Credit (above) K. Mason-Kiemle; (right) Jane McConnell 18 Quote from Harden McConnell’s Caltech Ph.D. thesis, 1951. Karen inscribed these words and many diagrams from McConnell’s research on the tiles, which she then mounted on two unique benches. Credit: Jane McConnell 19 Spin polarization diagram associated with the McConnell equation. A simple sketch of spin correlation by Pauling during a seminar at Caltech planted the seed, and McConnell developed the idea for his application. Diagram of a nitroxide free radical. ESR and chemical stability examined at Caltech, and then applied widely at Stanford to biological problems as “spin labels”. Credit: Alvin Kwiram 20 Credit: Karen Mason-Kiemle Jane McConnell after the move to Stanford Graduated from Castilleja High school, 1981 B.A. Stanford, Creative writing, English Dept. Transitioned to science: U. of Oregon and Stanford. Ph.D. Univ. of Wisconsin (Madison) Biology Joined the faculty of Castilleja School, 2008, Science Dept. 21 Jane R. McConnell 2018 Jane teaches 2nd yr. Biology to seniors, and has led field trips connecting with nature; biotechnology and engineering sustainable solutions. Castilleja School, Palo Alto. All-girls middle and high school “Women Learning, Women Leading” Credit: Castilleja School Credit: Castilleja School 22 Sophia McConnell 2018 Sophia celebrating the successful completion of the fund drive for the Caltech Harden M. McConnell Lectureship Endowment. Atherton CA, Dec. 14, 2017 “The Caltech years were simply the best of my life” Credit: O. Hayes Griffith 23 Celebration following the Caltech Inaugural Harden M. McConnell Lecture by Professor W. E. Moerner, Harry S. Mosher Professor of Chemistry at Stanford, Nobel Laureate. April 24, 2018 24 Left to right: Gerry Liebling, Tom Miller (Caltech professor and host), W. E. Moerner, Hayes Griffith, and Alvin Kwiram. Photo taken after the dinner in the Athenaeum library. Credit: Sharon Moerner image1.png image2.png image3.png image4.png image5.jpg image6.jpg image7.jpg image8.jpg image9.jpg image10.jpg image11.jpg image12.jpg image13.png image14.jpg image15.png image16.jpg image17.jpg image18.png image19.jpg image20.jpeg image21.jpg image22.jpg image23.jpg image24.jpg image25.jpg image26.JPG image27.jpg image28.jpg image29.jpg image30.jpg image31.jpg