Personalities | John A. Wood

Personalities

Jerry Wasserberg

Gerald J. Wasserburg came to my attention (1) when he spoke critically of the first paper I ever published, “The Solubility of Quartz in Water,” which I wrote while a graduate student at MIT. I felt threatened by this, and thereafter considered him an enemy. Wrongly; his remarks were justified, and not malicious. I’ve known him for all of the years since that time, and the fear of him I felt at that time has evolved through respect to admiration and love, perhaps.

Jerry was an underaged GI in WW2, and afterward followed a long path through graduate studies under Harold Urey at the University of Chicago, to a prestigious career in geochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. He was influential in NASA’s studies of lunar samples and meteorites, among other things.

Jerry Wasserburg standing next to a mass spectrometer named “Lunatic I”.

Jerry Wasserburg with “Lunatic I,” a mass spectrometer he and his students built to study to measure isotope abundances in the samples Apollo 11 was expected to collect on the moon. This is an uncompleted painting Jerry commissioned me to create.

Jerry and John A. Wood watching Lunar samples being collected in real time.

Here are Jerry and me watching lunar samples being collected in real time on TV. LRL workers noting our different reactions, labeled it “the many moods of LSAPT” since we both headed that committee at different times.

Jerry posing to show off his shirt, showing the solar nebula.

The design on Jerry’s shirt is the primordial solar nebula, reflecting his interest in that astronomical structure where the meteorites formed.

Paul Pellas

Paul Pellas and his girlfriend Martine tasting wine.

Paul Pellas and his girlfriend, Martine (on right), winetasting.

Paul and Julie Wood having a conversation at Vaison-la-Romaine.

Paul and Julie at Vaison-la-Romaine.

Paul actively speaking at a symposium, pointing at something on a board.

Paul Pellas speaking at a symposium.

Paul posing next to a rock wall.

Paul and John A. Wood standing on Paul’s balcony with a view of the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Paul and me on his balcony overlooking the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.

Paul’s debut in a film called La Vie Privée, posing with Brigitte Bardot.

Paul Pellas, playing a bit part in the film La Vie Privée with Brigitte Bardot. The film was released in 1962, about the time when the rest of us were lining up at the Tilton School (New Hampshire) for a group photograph.