The IGY and Me

I was born in 1950, the same year as the idea for the IGY was hatched, and just a few miles from the house where that occurred.

My education was shaped by the science mania that followed the launching of Sputnik. I received a B.S. in engineering geophysics at Cornell University. My first job afterward was with Fairchild Space & Electronics Co., working on the power subsystems for communications satellites. Summer

I eventually received my graduate degrees in geophysics in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona, which included two luminaries of the IGY. My research was on radiocarbon geophysics, and archaeomagnetism. Summer jobs included the USDA's Soil Conservation Service, NOAA's National Weather Service, Newmont Mining, and Amoco Oil.

I continued research on the application of geophysics to archaeology and taught as a professor of geophysics at Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA.

In the early 2000s, I decided to start collecting items related to the IGY in anticipation of its semicentennial in 2007-08. My collection consists of hundreds of philatelic items (stamps, covers, etc.), technical and popular books, and miscellaneous memorabilia.

I recently watched the movie Julie and Julia (2009), contrasting the early years of Julia Childs' culinary career with the life of Julie Powell, who aspired to cook all 524 recipes in Child's cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961) in 365 days, a challenge she described in her blog. I thought afterwards that a blog of my own could be a good way to present some of my thoughts about the IGY and my collection.

If I do one entry a week (and stay with it!!), I can get 524 blog entries done before the diamond (75th) anniversary of the IGY in 2032-33!