Academic Genealogy

Who was my advisor's advisor's advisor's ...?

I was advised by James Larkin at UC, Los Angeles. Here is the path of our advisors and mentors spanning over two centuries. I generated this years ago before the fancy automated genealogy software. :)



"Nanos gigantium humeris insidentes"
James Larkin (Physics, Caltech, 1996)

- Co-director of UC Infrared Laboratory
- near-infrared astronomical instrumentalist and adaptive optics specialist
- near-infrared extragalactic science (thesis title: "Near Infrared Spectroscopy of LINER Galaxies")
Tom Soifer (Physics, Cornell, 1972)

- Director of SIRTF
- infrared telescope experiments for sub-orbital Aerobee rockets (Jim Houck and Martin Harwitt)
- As an undergrad worked with G. Neugebauer with conducting first infared sky survey (Two micron Survey)
Jim Houck (Physics, Cornell, 1967)

- near infrared instrumentalist (PI: Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) on Spitzer)
- became interested in astronomy from Martin Harwitt and Peter Goldreich
- early infrared liquid-helium cryogenically cooled telescopes borne aloft on Aerobee rockets
Raymond Bowers (Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford, 1951)

- thermal conductivity of helium II
- investigated other thermal electric materials
- died in a tragic accident falling in a gorge in a national park near Ithaca
Kurt Mendelssohn (Physics/Chemistry, Berlin University, 1930)

- first person in U.K. to liquify helium
- In 1960, he founded and was the first editor of Cryogenics. This journal was designed from the beginning to include large scale cryogenic engineering topics
Sir Francis Simon (a.k.a., Franz Eugene Simon, Physics, University of Berlin, 1936)

- devised the method of separating the isotope Uranium-235 by gaseous division which was later transferred to the Manhattan Project - professor at Oxford
Walther Nernst (Physics, University of Wuerzberg, 1887)

- invented an electric lamp using an incandescent ceramic rod
- established the third law of thermodynamics
- won Nobel Prize in 1920 in chemistry
- avid critic of Hitler and Nazi movement which ended his career (I think his last graduate student was Sir Francis Simon before WWII)
Friedrich Kohlrausch (Physics/Chemistry, University of Gotttingen, 1864)

- investigated the conductive properties of electrolytes, early work extended Gauss and Weber's work on EM measuring units
Wilhelm Eduart Weber (Physics/Natural Philosophy, University of Gottengen, 1828)

- inventor of the first electormagnetic telegraph
- developed the Atlas des Erdmagnetismus ("atlas of geomagnetism"), a series of magnetic maps, and it was chiefly through his efforts that magnetic observatories were instituted
Johann Salomo Christoph Schweigger (Philosophy/Physics, University of Erlangen Nuremberg, 1804)

- proposed the name "Chlorine" for the element that had been discovered
- his official advisor was Franz Wolf, but George Hildenbrandt and Karl Landsdorff persuaded him to further study science and mathematics
Franz August Wolf (Philosopher, Heyne at Gottingen, 1784?)

- Published Prolegomena ad Homerum (1795), which maintained that Homeric epcis were of unified and single authorship, but was work of many authors

Academic Siblings

Fellow Ph.D. graduates that were advised by Prof. James Larkin (UCLA)

Tiffany Glassman, Ph.D Astronomy, 2003
Josheph Rhee, Ph.D Astronomy, 2004
Matthew Barczys, Ph.D Astronomy, 2007
Michael McElwain, Ph.D Astronomy, 2008
Jeffrey Chilcote, Ph.D Astronomy, 2015



Academic Progeny

Ph.D. graduates that were advised by me.

Etsuko Mieda, Ph.D Astronomy, University of Toronto, 2015


Last updated by Shelley Wright 2016-August-25