Memorial Tributes Volume 25 (2023) / Chapter Skim
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WILLIAM E. GORDON
WILLIAM E. GORDON
Pages 156-167
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From page 157... ...
The authors thank Kenneth Bowles, Dale Corson (NAS/NAE) , Donald Farley, Nancy Ward, Paul Cloutier, and the Woodson Research Center of the Fondren Library at Rice.
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From page 158... ...
had just been formed, and its mission included support of studies of the ionosphere. In late 1959 ARPA provided funds for an engineering study of the radar and, in June 1960, funds for construction.
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From page 159... ...
The development effort at the site was intense, but balanced by swimming and shell collecting at nearby undeveloped beaches, along with trips around Puerto Rico and to other Caribbean islands. The radar was dedicated in November 1963 as the Arecibo Ionospheric Observatory, and Bill became its first director and leader of the ionospheric research group.
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From page 160... ...
As dean and provost he used his legendary powers of gentle persuasion, and financial incentives where appropriate, to increase the faculty ranks of women and members of other underrepresented groups, especially in science and engineering. He enhanced interdisciplinary research, insisted on fair and balanced evaluation of faculty for promotion and tenure, ensured that faculty in non–science and engineering fields were appropriately recognized for their scholarship and other creative endeavors, strengthened the undergraduate curriculum and teaching (he felt communication skills should receive greater emphasis across the curriculum)
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From page 161... ...
And in an effort to encourage dialogue across the intellectual boundaries of the campus and foster a true community of scholars, he created the Provost's Lecture Series and encouraged faculty to discuss their research and scholarly activity with those in other fields as well as the broader Rice community. To this end, he established the Rice faculty organization Scientia, brainchild of mathematics professor Salomon Bochner (NAS)
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From page 162... ...
. The main assumption was that the electrons scattered the incoming radiation according to the Thomson formula, and the elementary scattered waves added independently to form the total echo.
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From page 163... ...
They verified the theoretical calculations showing that for a certain range of the ratio of the radio frequency wavelength to the Debye length (the "screening distance" around a charged particle) , the echo was concentrated in a narrow "ion line" controlled by the ion mass and not the electron mass.
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From page 164... ...
He received URSI's Balthazar van der Pol Gold Medal (1966) for "Development of the incoherent scatter technique
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From page 165... ...
, the NAS Arctowski Medal (1984) "For his pioneering development of theory and instrumentation for radar backscatter studies, which opened a broad field of research in the high altitude ionosphere," a Medal Commemorating 100 Years of International Geophysics from the USSR Academy of Sciences (1985)
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From page 166... ...
In the 1970s he began to alert fellow scholars and especially business and community leaders to the potential impacts of climate change, warning that while the threat was long term, it was time to start paying attention. As the years passed with little policy progress Bill became convinced that the problem of global warming and climate change was becoming urgent.
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From page 167... ...
The enemy is us. Bill liked to raise tropical plants he discovered in Puerto Rico and sail his boat Dulcinea on Galveston Bay.
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