Legends…

It’s not often one gets to talk to a preeminent scientist one on one, much less get to talk to two of them over breakfast; but today, by fortuitous chance, I got to do just that…


Drs. Walter Munk and Art Baggeroer invited me to join them and I quickly accepted, and then had an OH S**T moment wondering if I was going to get asked any questions!  I’d actually done data collections for both these gents back in the day, and have read/followed both their published papers over the years, as what they did impacted my job in the Navy.


Both of these guys are legends in the fields of acoustics and oceanography; to put it mildly, they are arguably in the top five Oceanographers/Acousticians in the world. Both of them have contributed significantly the world’s understanding of the seas, and specifically to the Navy’s success in operations at sea, understanding of the ocean and acoustics, and systems development  over many years and platforms in the Navy.


Dr. Munk is 94 years young, and still takes an active interest in what’s going on, and still consults occasionally to a variety of organizations.  Dr. Baggeroer is still active at MIT and a Navy consultant on a variety of programs.   


Thankfully, I got asked no questions; I just got to just listen to them go back and forth over 40 years of experimentation, systems development, and people they’d interacted with!


And I can’t help but wonder if they really realize how LARGE their impact has been, and how many lives they’ve potentially saved by their research…


And they are both truly nice gents… 🙂

Comments

Legends… — 6 Comments

  1. I occasionally am in the presence of great people in person. I usually try to keep my mouth shut in those situations. Sorta like here!

    Most though are kind enough and wise enough and egos are in check. I find these people to be refreshing to be around.

  2. Of all the (few) people like this I’ve met, I’ve always found the “hands on” experimentalist guys to be much more personable than the pure theoreticians.
    And like Keads, I usually shut my yap when I’m around them!

  3. It’s amazing how ‘clicking a button on a computer’ today is the result of years of genius – and we almost always take for granted that we stand on the shoulders of great people who make it look easy today.

  4. Wow! Hard to not go all fan-geek with folks like that. I’m glad you had the opportunity to sit down with two gentlemen that you admire so much!

  5. Keads- They were and are… 🙂

    drjim- VERY True, and Amar Bose is the same way…

    LL- These gents fully admit they’ve failed more than once, but each of those failures LED to successes later!

    MC- Fanboi is right 🙂 I can’t do the math, but I can damn sure understand the results 🙂

  6. Acoustics was not my favorite subject in grad school. Waaay too much math for a flange head like me. But I learned enough to know that acoustic signal processing was the cutting edge of science and appreciate those who did it.