Biographical Memoirs Volume 86 (2005) / Chapter Skim
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Willis H. Flygare
Willis H. Flygare
Pages 136-161
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From page 137... ...
The issue of theJournal of Chemical Physics alone contained 117 original research articles written by scientists throughout the world, filling 965 journal pages covering every imaginable facet of research in physical chemistry. It was the largest single issue of its kind, an unprecedented outpouring of respect and gratitude reflecting the significance of Bill's life.
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From page 138... ...
In contrast to Bill's usual ways of dressing in later years, the store concentrated on relatively formal men's attire and had the motto "Bill Flygare Suits Me." In addition to their house in town, the family had a summer cottage adjacent to a lake and a golf course outside of Sherburn. Bill spent many summer hours boating, fishing, and golfing.
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From page 139... ...
In later years, whether it was in pickup basketball games with Illinois students and faculty where he outclassed most, coaching his son's Little League team to win the Champaign-Urbana twin city championship, or smacking wild serves and forehands on a tennis court, he continued to play with the greatest possible enjoyment and wholesome competitive zeal. Describing Bill's approach to skiing down a mountain, Peter Beak would say, "It was best to arrive at the bottom in one piece, but it was not as important as being first." HIGHER EDUCATION Bill graduated from high school in June 1954.
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From page 140... ...
One of Bill's former students, Ben Ware, remarked that he initially confused Bill's unorthodox thinking for lack of extraordinary intelligence or insight. "Only after years of tolerating his special type of diversionary thinking," Ben wrote, "did I realize that that was actually [Flygare's]
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From page 141... ...
He was brilliant with the former and fearless in his approach to both One hurdle for all Berkeley chemistry graduate students is an oral qualifying examination instituted long ago by Berkeley's founding chemist G
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From page 142... ...
Ruth would sometimes audit courses at the university, including Edward Teller's lectures on physics for laymen. Bill progressed quickly in his research, and by the start of his third year in graduate school, William Gwinn had written to Herbert Gutowsky at the University of Illinois, recommending Bill for a faculty position: "Flygare is a very pleasant person with whom to work.
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From page 143... ...
Harry Drickamer, Herb Gutowsky,JiriJonas, Rudy Marcus, and others were among its stellar faculty. During that period, it was arguably the best physical chemistry program in the world.
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From page 144... ...
He wrote the advanced physical chemistry textbook Molecular Structure and Dynamics, and he coauthored more than 200 research papers, the last 25 were written during the last two years of his life while resisting the effects of a ravaging illness, about which I have more to say later. As the numbers indicate, his students worked very hard.
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From page 145... ...
A few would go away insulted. A famous physical chemist once wrote asking a question concerning one of Bill's long and detailed papers on the molecular Zeeman effect.
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From page 146... ...
In a previous theoretical paper he had analyzed the principles of the molecular Zeeman effect and established that molecular quadrupole moments could be measured directly by using both the linear and quadratic field Zeeman effect. With this and related connections his group's subsequent measurements of the molecular Zeeman effect determined molecular ~values, magnetic susceptibility tensor elements, molecular quadrupole moments, second moments of electronic charge distributions, and in some cases the signs of the electric dipole moments for about 90 molecules.
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From page 147... ...
chemical physics." Indeed, the diversity includes optics, uranium enrichment, liquid crystal and polymer physics, laser development, as well as other fields. Recalling his own professional development in the field of eximer lasers, Ewing says the connection to high-resolution spectroscopy appears weak, but "the 'close union of theory and experiment' that Bill pitched was always in my mind." IILLLN015, MIDDLE YEARS I first met Bill Flygare in late January 1970 during my interview trip to Illinois.
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From page 148... ...
Bill was introduced to light scattering by his student Ben Ware. Ben's first research advisor had recently left Urbana to take a position at the University of Minnesota.
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From page 149... ...
" Bill had carried out a set of calculations to derive how light scattering coupled with electrophoresis would permit high-resolution multicomponent analysis of blood plasma. Specifically, because of their different net charges, different components would have different Doppler shifts in the presence of an electric field.
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From page 150... ...
While exploring various technological ideas for light scattering throughout the 1970-1971 winter, a crucial piece of theoretical insight was still missing. The break came when Ben considered that electrophoretic Doppler shifts increase relative to diffusion widths as the light-scattering vector is decreased.
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From page 151... ...
thesis, "Transient Rotational Relaxation Studies and Fourier Transform Microwave Spectroscopy." The techniques described there were important elements in a new and powerful spectroscopy that Bill and his students Terry Balle, Ed Campbell, and Mike Keenan would invent during the next 18 months. Also by that summer the first signs of disease appeared that would make this invention Bill's last contribution to science.
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From page 152... ...
Bill saw his own failing health together with Marcus's imminent move as a significant blow to the physical chemistry program at Illinois. He convinced Harry Drickamer and Herb Gutowsky that a recruiting effort was necessary.
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From page 153... ...
In the late winter of 1978 he began to anticipate how his group's developments of time-domain microwave spectroscopy might soon lead to the possibility of determining structures of transient or weakly bound molecular species. He and his students imagined studies of van der Weals complexes, such as argon clustering with hydrogen halides.
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From page 154... ...
The impressive spectra and structural analysis of these van der Weals molecules formed the basis for research lectures that Bill would give that fall. One of these was given at Columbia University in New York City.
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From page 155... ...
Considering that work today, more than 20 years later, Berkeley spectroscopist Richard Saykally writes, "Bill Flygare's greatest contribution was the development of the Balle-Flygare Fourier transform microwave spectrometer, which affected nothing less than a total revolution in the field of microwave spectroscopy. The sensitivity, simplicity and generality of this design permit a wide variety of applications....
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From page 156... ...
The group's results generated significant excitement throughout the chemical physics community. In November 1980 Bill received notification that he had been selected as the next recipient of the Irving Langmuir Award from the American Physical Society.
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Peter Beak remains an active member of the Illinois Chemistry Department. Ben Ware is currently vice-president for research at Syracuse University.
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Several others have provided helpful information that I have used in this memoir, including David Buckingham, Henry Ehrenreich,John Flygare, Richard Saykally, and Jeremiah Sullivan.
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From page 159... ...
Lo. The molecular Value tensor, the molecular susceptibility tensor, sign of the electric dipole moment, and the molecular quadrupole moments in formaldehyde.
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From page 160... ...
The molecular Zeeman effect in dimagnetic molecules and the determination of molecular magnetic moments (~values) , magnetic susceptibilities, and molecular quadrupole moments.
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From page 161... ...
Fabry-Perot cavity pulsed Fourier transform microwave spectrometer with a pulsed nozzle particle source.
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