Equivalence: Elizabeth L. Scott at Berkeley

623 Pages·2017·5.219 MB·English

by  Amanda L Golbeck

EQUIVALENCE
Elizabeth L. Scott at Berkeley

EQUIVALENCE
Elizabeth L. Scott at Berkeley
Amanda L. Golbeck
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
USA
CRC Press
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To my stars: Craig and Dan.
In memory of Betty: An exemplar and inspiration still.
BlackandwhitecaricatureofElizabethL.Scott(Betty)fromherhighschoolyearbook.
Senior Souvenir (Oakland:UniversityHighSchool,1935)
Shall we go,
you and I
while we can?
Through
the transitive nightfall
of diamonds
LyricsfromDark Star.
(RobertHunter,IceNinePublishing,1967)
Contents
Preface xv
About the Author xxi
Acknowledgments xxiii
Acronyms xxv
I The Betty Book 1
1 Caught in the Thick of It (1968) 3
1.1 At Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 UC and the Urban Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Berkeley Women and the Urban Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 Berkeley Women Begin to Organize . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.5 A Complicated Set of Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.6 Thick Politics and Early Exhaustion . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
II Shaping the Life 17
2 Boots and Saddles (Before 1932) 19
2.1 Grandfather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2 Uncle and Father . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3 Childhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.4 Family Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3 Aunt Phoebe’s Telescope (1882–1967) 31
3.1 Astronomy Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2 Computer Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3 Astronomy Doctoral Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.4 Lick Observatory Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.5 Life Career Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
vii
viii Contents
4 Becoming an Outlier (1932–1939) 45
4.1 Move to California . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.2 University High School Advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.3 Math Advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.4 Science Advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.5 High School to College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.6 Tunnel Road House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.7 Neyman Serendipity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.8 Klumpke Prize and Graduation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5 Ten Thousand Hours of Practice (1939–1946) 59
5.1 Year One – Getting up the Mountain . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.2 Year Two – Summer at Mount Wilson . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.3 Year Three – Beginning War Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.4 Year Four – Lick Fellowship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.5 Year Five – University Fellowship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.6 Year Six – Qualifying Exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.7 Year Seven – Ending War Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.8 Year Eight – Teaching and Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.9 A Symmetric Intellectual Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . 70
6 A Rising Star (1947–1954) 73
6.1 Prospects at Vassar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.2 Competing Offers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6.3 The UC-Berkeley Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
6.4 Lecturer in Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
6.5 Remarkable Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
6.6 Instructor in Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
6.7 Assistant Professor of Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
6.8 Trumpler’s Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
6.9 A Retrospective: Betty and Phoebe . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
6.10 A Retrospective: Phoebe’s Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
III Clusters of Impact 93
7 Championing Science (1939–1988) 95
7.1 Themes and Controversies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
7.2 Modern Statisticians, Old Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
7.3 Statistical Astronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
7.4 General Statistical Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7.5 Bioscience and Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
7.6 Symposia, Panels, and Talks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
7.7 Managing Neyman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Contents ix
8 The Case of Cloud Seeding (1950–1985) 113
8.1 Increase or Decrease Precipitation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
8.2 An Emotional Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
8.3 Radio Broadcast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
8.4 Legislative Testimony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
8.5 Professional Association Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
8.6 Still Cloud Seeding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
9 Almost Alone in Statistics (1955–1988) 127
9.1 New Statistics Department (1955) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
9.2 Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
9.3 Administrator and Professor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
9.4 Colleague Juliet Popper Shaffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
9.5 Flexibility and Resilience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
10 Students and Memories (1948–1988) 143
10.1 Remembrances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
10.2 On Mentoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
10.3 On Generosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
10.4 On Personality and Professionalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
10.5 On Concentration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
10.6 On Political Acumen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
10.7 On Approach to Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
10.8 On the Other Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
10.9 On Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
10.10 Summing It Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
11 Letters to Jerry (1954–1955) 159
11.1 October 1954: Paris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
11.2 January 1955: Paris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
11.3 February 1955: Paris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
11.4 April 1955: Paris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
11.5 May 1955: Paris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
11.6 Thursday, May 5, 1955: Paris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
11.7 Sunday, May 8, 1955: Dieppe, Newhaven, Winchester . . . 171
11.8 Thursday, May 12, 1955: Oxford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
11.9 Thursday Night, May 12, 1955: London . . . . . . . . . . . 173
11.10 Tuesday, May 17, 1955: Cambridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
11.11 Wednesday, May 18, 1955: Paris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
11.12 Thursday Morning, May 19, 1955: Paris (continuation of the
previous letter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
11.13 n.d: Paris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
11.14 Back in Paris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
11.15 Monday Midnight [most likely May 23, 1955]: Paris . . . . 179