David Zierler <dzierler@aip.org>
Sat 4/3/2021 5:38 AM
Cottrell, Les
Dear Dr. Cottrell,
I direct the Oral History program at the American Institute of Physics, and I am working with communications officers and archivists at SLAC to develop a project that celebrates physics heritage at the Laboratory.
The starting point of the project will be to conduct oral histories of eminent physicists associated with SLAC. In discussions with Angela Anderson, Melinda Lee, Dorothy Leung, and Jean Deken, everyone agreed that an interview with you would be a terrific addition to the project.
Since we have all moved to a remote work platform, I have been conducting interviews via videoconference, and I have been pleasantly surprised to learn that this medium works basically as well as in-person interviews.
To give you a sense of the scope of questions and online presentation of the finalized interview, here is a link to my talk with Persis Drell, the most recent we’ve published from this collaboration:
https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/45286
Interviews generally last about two-three hours, and my goal is to engage in an enjoyable conversation that contextualizes the interviewee’s career and research achievements within a broader life history narrative.
Following our interview, we will transcribe the audio file, and you would have full control to review and edit the transcript before granting us authority to publish it. Our interviews are posted online and held in the archives of the Niels Bohr Library, and parallel copies would be published by the SLAC archives. Your interview would be a tremendous resource for researchers and historians.
I hope you are interested in this, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
David Zierler
David Zierler, Ph.D.
Oral Historian
Center for History of Physics
American Institute of Physics
Office 301.209.3160
Web www.aip.org