HOME Faculty/Staff How Sputnik helped launch one professor’s career

How Sputnik helped launch one professor’s career

Written by Ebony Evans

Thursday, 04 October 2007 12:00 AM

Learn More NASA.gov: Sputnik: The Fiftieth Anniversary The world’s first artificial satellite orbitted the Earth in about 98 minutes on its elliptical path, and it launched one professor’s career into the physics world. The 50 anniversary of the Sputnik 1 launch is celebrated today. For physics professor John Fry, it signifies his success. Fry was determined to get a college education because his father was drafted before finishing his degree. When the satellite was launched Oct. 4, 1957, Fry was a senior in high school. The U.S. government was shocked by the Russians’ technological advancement and provided funds for engineering programs through military agencies, he said “I had job offers in California. I could go to any schools and get paid with grant money from the federal government,” Fry said. “It got me an education. I got a Ph.D. basically, and I got paid to go to school.” Fry stayed close to his home in Texas and went to Baylor University. He received the National Science scholarship that paid his way through college for a master’s degree. “While I was in grad school, I had two children and raised a family. I was able to live a more or less normal life which would have been awful without the support from the federal government,” Fry said. “During my Ph.D. research, I didn’t have to teach or anything like that, so it gave me a good education. I decided at the last minute I wanted to teach at a university instead of going into the industry.” Suresh Sharma, Center for Nanostructured Materials director and physics professor, said Fry is very well known and a top notch physicist. Fry started off teaching at Louisiana State University where he was a physics professor for five years. Fry’s career of 36 years has been stable at UTA — he was the physics chairman from 1983 to 1987. He retired from being a chairman and is still a physics professor. Fry changed his research from condensed matter to the study of fundamental laws of physics and theoretical activity and is interested in dark matter and dark energy, he said. Associate chair Alex Weiss reminisced on Fry’s patience at faculty meetings. “He is a very patient man,” Weiss said. “He liked to go on trips when he was chairman as faculty. One time we went to South Padre Island. He also likes to go fishing, but he doesn’t like to eat the fish!” Views: 1424 | E-mail   Be first to comment this article Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.6 AkoComment © Copyright 2004 by Arthur Konze - www.mamboportal.com All right reserved

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 30 October 2007 03:04 PM )

 

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