Terahertz pioneers: A series of interviews with significant contributors to terahertz science and technology

Abstract

As a tribute to individuals who have contributed significantly, and over many years, to the terahertz community, and as a guide and inspiration for those who are just beginning their professional association with this field of study, these transactions have included, on a regular basis, a series of biographical interviews with technical researchers who have appreciably impacted the THz community in a positive manner. In order to go beyond a strict technical review and to take better advantage of the information and commentary only available through a direct discussion, these articles take on a less formal style than the research articles that can be found within the remaining pages of the transactions. The Editor-in-Chief has taken some leeway in this regard, for the benefit of communicating more fully the character, experiences, and historic circumstances that have shaped our community and set the directions for our collective research. This month we pick up the THz spectroscopy cord that was first laid in the 1940s and 1950s simultaneously by Townes and Schawlow at Columbia University, NYC, USA, Gerhard Herzberg at the National Research Council, Canada and by Walter Gordy, who came out of the MIT Radiation Lab (USA) after World War II and set up shop at Duke University in Durham, NC, USA. When Gordy retired after more than 30 years at Duke, he turned his laboratory over to one of his most trusted and distinguished students, Frank Charles De Lucia. Going well beyond Gordy, De Lucia has touched upon and impacted almost every area and application of terahertz spectroscopy, from very recent, and hopefully not prescient research on uranium oxide, to molecules in the interstellar medium, to trace elements that travel with us as we journey from place to place.

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