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BY ROSARIO PAZ

In print | Published April 12, 2007

Swarthmore alum John C. Mather ‘68, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics last October, was recently appointed as NASA’s chief scientist. The Phoenix’s Rosario Paz interviewed Mather about his work and his time at Swarthmore.

Congratulations on your appointment as leader of NASA’s Office of Chief Scientist. How do you feel about this achievement?

It’s a major responsibility I’m taking on here and I have to learn how to do it. One of the most interesting and exciting things about the new job is to learn about so many new things.

What will the work in your new position at NASA entail?

I make recommendations for the Associate Administrator for Science. I’m supposed to work with all the areas of NASA science. That includes astronomy and astrophysics, planetary exploration, earth science and solar physics. I cover all of the areas to make sure that we have a balanced program in all of the sciences.

How will this relate to your studies and research in previous years?

NASA gets its advice from many places, but the main thing that we get is from the National Academy of Science. When we ask them, they tell us what our program should be like. Every science area gets a report every 10 years that says what they think our program has to be. Those committees don’t have the decision responsibility, don’t have the money and don’t have complete information about each of the projects. We have to tell them what we think is the right answer about that.

Congratulations on your recent acceptance of the Nobel Prize for Physics. Could you briefly explain the importance of your work that won you the Nobel Prize for Physics?

Thank you. What we did was to observe the heat radiation from the Big Bang itself — cosmic microwave background radiation. We measured the color of the radiation, known technically as the spectrum, and we got an answer that agreed exactly with the prediction of the Big Bang Theory. We built the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite (COBE) and there is a nice summary at the NobelPrize.org Web site.

My current work is on the James Webb Space Telescope, which is more like the Hubble Space Telescope, instead of what we did for the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite, which was a much smaller project. The COBE satellite was something that I worked on personally as a principal investigator. This meant that I was in every way responsible for the particular details for everything in the instrument. My new project involves working with people spread out all over the world, so I don’t have the same hands-on connection. This is a service to the world and not a personal project.

Who was influential to your current work in physics/astronomy during your time at Swarthmore?

I think that there are quite a lot of individuals that were instrumental in the success of my career. All of the faculty gave me particular attention, which was wonderful. I’m not thinking of one particular person as standing out from all of the others.

What led you to pursue physics and astronomy at Swarthmore?

When I came to Swarthmore I knew I wanted to be a physicist, but I didn’t know how good I was going to be at it or how it was going to work. That was my first big question coming in. The second question was what particular part of science I would want to pursue. At the time, I wasn’t expecting to become an astronomer. I certainly didn’t think I was going to work for NASA.

Was this your intention from freshman year, or were there other subjects that piqued your interest as well?

I studied all the physics and math and astronomy that I could get. But I also took economics, French literature in French, German language for scientists, philosophy, art history and music history. I knew that while I was at Swarthmore, this was my last chance to learn something besides science. People sort of looked at me in awe at the amount of physics I could do and I looked at them in awe at the amount of art history and literature they could do, so there is an interesting comparison there.

What were your interests and extra-curricula at the college?

I didn’t have a lot of extracurricular activities at the college. I had summer jobs doing science, which included work at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and the University of California in San Diego studying underwater visibility. I did try to learn how to play the piano from a friend who gave me lessons. I wasn’t very good, but I enjoyed it.

What were your favorite non-academic books?

As a child, I liked “Gulliver’s Travels,” which made fun of scientists. I also liked “Swiss Family Robinson,” which was full of people who knew everything about everything. I remember that my parents read to me from biographies of Darwin and Galileo when I was about eight.

What did your parents do for a living?

My father was a scientist who conducted research on dairy cattle and my mother was a schoolteacher.

What was the most valuable part of your Swarthmore experience?

I really enjoyed the fact that Swarthmore gave a general introduction to life. There was something of everything available, so I tried to get a complete education in my science and in other things as well.

Swarthmore has passed down the popular legend that Vice President Spiro Agnew under Richard M. Nixon referred to Swarthmore College as “the Kremlin on the Crum.” Could you describe the college’s political climate during your time there in the 1960s?

Well, I don’t think that you should trust anything that [Agnew] said. He was one of the more infamous crooks that we had in the government. He got a lot of press from attacking intellectuals, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he said that. In general, people at Swarthmore were very eager to do good things in the world. There were some people who went off to the Peace Corps. I helped tutor kids in math in Chester. There were an awful lot of good-hearted people in the college that wanted to do good things.

Do you have any memorable experiences from your time at Swarthmore?

I’d say I really enjoyed classes. A few times, we had outdoor classes with a blackboard brought outside to write on. I remember walking around a lot in the Crum Woods.

Also, we used to have silent movies that the Head of the Astronomy Department Peter Van de Kamp would play the piano for. He was amazing.

Did you have a favorite hangout or study spot on campus?

Most of my study time was at the Dupont Library. I think I spent most of my life there.

Was Paces around as a dance scene during your time at Swarthmore? What was the party scene like?

I don’t recognize this, so I don’t know. But I’m sure that there was plenty going on that I didn’t know about. I was a pretty studious character and I didn’t do much else besides study.

What was one of the aspects of college that challenged you?

For me, the big challenge was trying to have a social life as compared to studying all the time.

What advice could you offer to current students?

I guess speaking to the scientists and engineers, they should learn to read and write because they’re going to be reading and writing and talking to people for the rest of their lives.

When you have the opportunity, make sure that you learn all of those things because it could be your last chance.

What are your interests now, outside of your work?

Outside of work, I like to travel and go to the ballet with my wife, who is a ballet teacher. I try to keep slightly in shape and exercise.

Where have you traveled?

I’ve been to a great many places — Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Egypt, China, Tibet, Morocco, Japan and Nepal.

Traveling the first time in Italy and seeing our cultural heritage in art and history — what the Romans had built 2,000 years ago — was all thrilling.

I think now, “Why did we forget how to do that?”

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