Recent Advances in Cryogenics

I would like to thank the organizers of this Symposium for the opportunity to play at being “King for the Day” — to have my wish to bring together old friends, colleagues and co-workers for this Symposium. On this occasion I thought it would be appropriate to talk about Cryogenics, which has been my other life for the past 15 years — a mini-career in industry in our small company, MMR Technologies, Inc. in parallel with my University career. It is appropriate because when I came to Stanford in 1958 my charter was to set up the infrastructure for cryogenics on campus and to provide liquid helium for all users. Felix Bloch and George Pake had obtained funding from the Office of Naval Research for the acquisition of a Collins helium liquifier and I was to set it up and have it run. This I did for the next 15 years until I was able to pass the responsibility on to others. At first I was the only user, but in time others emerged in chemistry, material science, high energy physics, and when Bill Fairbank arrived on campus he became a major user. I have thus returned to my roots.