He was so impressed with the museum that he applied for and was appointed to the position of NASM director in 1987. In 1981 he wrote a book on the history of astronomy, which triggered his exploration of the history and social impact of science and technology in general, which led to his interest in public education in science and technology and a six-month fellowship at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in 1983. In 1962 he joined the faculty at Cornell and worked on the first helium-cooled rockets designed for infrared astronomical observations above the atmosphere. People who have actually seen an atomic bomb blast would not write that." A MUSEUM DIRECTOR IS BORNĪfter his military service, armed with improved self-confidence, reference letters, and the GI Bill, he went to MIT for a physics PhD, and to Cambridge for post-doctoral work in cosmology. He describes these explosions as "awe-inspiring" and explains how that sobering experience affected his reactions to some critics of the Enola Gay exhibit: "I got a postcard from one person saying 'I wish we'd dropped 10 atomic bombs on those slant-eyed, yellow-bellied, little bastards.' If you've seen those bombs go off, you think it's just an irresponsible type of statement. During his tour of duty, he saw the first H-bomb drop from an airplane (at Bikini) and many other atomic blasts. Ironically, he says he "flunked out for having no talent for science," and was immediately drafted into the Army's Chemical Corps for the Korean War. There he learned the basics of cooking, including the lesson "that you don't have to wash vegetables with soap."Īfter graduation, he spent a year as an assistant for the undergrad labs at Amherst College before going to grad school in physics at the University of Michigan. He also enjoyed Pyle Inn, Oberlin's first co-op, of which he was a founding member. "It was a fairly traumatic four years, and I just didn't do very well."ĭespite those difficulties, Harwit says he had a good group of friends and enjoyed the swim team and going to concerts. He also had to live within a tight budget, and he was experiencing his first coeducational school. He was still adjusting to America, and, at 16, was younger than most of the stu-dents, many of whom had recently returned from World War II. from Turkey in the spring of 1946, only a year and a half before starting at Oberlin.
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Born in Czechoslovakia, he had immigrated to the U.S. "Being on the swimming team, I had strong lungs, and so I tried to see what the minimum number of breaths was that I could take in an hour of these classes, and that was what kept me from falling asleep," he recalls.ĭifferential equations aside, Harwit worked hard at Oberlin, although the effort did not show in his grades, largely because of difficulties outside the classroom. Although he eventually became an accomplished astrophysicist and museum director, his Oberlin differential equations classes were tough. Harwit was not Oberlin's best physics student.
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In a recent interview at his southwest Washington townhouse, Harwit shared his thoughts on the Enola Gay affair, his recently published book on the exhibit, An Exhibit Denied: Lobbying the History of Enola Gay (Copernicus/Springer-Verlag), and his path from Oberlin to the museum. The exhibit was canceled in January 1995 after months of controversy, and Harwit left his post four months later. He was head of the National Air and Space Museum during the contentious fight over a planned exhibition of the newly restored Enola Gay, the airplane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
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Martin Harwit '51 has gained more fame in the past few years than most astrophysicists get in a lifetime. Dream Job That Became A Nightnare The Dream Job That Became A Nightmare Martin Harwit And The Enola Gay Exhibit by David Ehrenstein '88