Caves, C. M.
Oral history interview with Carlton Caves, 2020 July 16.
Carlton Caves, Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Research Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of New Mexico, is interview by David Zierler. Caves recounts his familys history in Oklahoma, his own childhood there and his early interests in collecting insects. He describes the considerations that led him to enroll at Rice University, where Harold Rorschach and Neal Lane were formative influences leading to his interest in physics. He explains his decision to focus on relativity for graduate school at Caltech, where Kip Thorne because his advisor, and he describes his first project editing Thornes draft section on what would become Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler. Caves explains Thornes initial interest in detecting gravitational waves and how he worked through the problem in identifying the noise sources in gravitational interferometers. He describes how his work on squeezing light informed the LIGO and Virgo collaborations, and he conveys the difficulties in specializing in quantum optics before that was a recognized field in the physics job market. Caves discusses the opportunity that led to him joining the Electrophysics group at USC, and he connects his growing interest in information physics and quantum metrology to his decision to transfer to New Mexico. He discusses Marlan Scullys pioneering research on lasers, his developing interest in importing Bayesianism into quantum mechanics, and how UNM became a leading center for quantum information theory. Caves surveys the applicability of quantum information, and at the end of the interview, he reflects on the importance of setting ones sights high in retirement, because the stakes of scientific failure are low personally but can also yield great advances.
Carlton M. Caves Caves obtained a BA in physics and mathematics from Rice University (1972) and a PhD in physics from the California Institute of Technology (1979). He spent his career at CalTech, the University of Southern California, and the Univeristy of New Mexico, where he eventually retired with emeritus status.
Caves, C. M.
Lane, Neal F.
Rorschach, Harold Emil
Scully, Marlan
Thorne, Kip S.
California Institute of Technology
Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.
Rice University
University of New Mexico
University of Southern California. Department of Physics
Bayesian statistical decision theory.
Gravitational waves.
Quantum optics.
Quantum theory
Interviews. aat
Oral histories. aat
Transcripts. aat
Zierler, David, 1979- interviewer.
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA