A Glimpse of Walter Kohn

Abstract

We finally made it to San Diego, all across the country and the stark expanse of the southwest, in a red Volkswagen Rabbit with no air conditioning, my wife, a pet dog, a myriad potted plants, boxes of photocopied papers, stacks of computer outputs and not much else. I was going to be Walter Kohn’s postdoc. All throughout the trip I thought about what it was going to be like. Vivid accounts of Walter from my mentors at Cornell made me almost certain of his looks, his worldview, and his sharp critical mind. I felt that I had known the person since my childhood, although I had never seen him or met him. There was always a Walter story floating around at Cornell, thanks to Vinay and David, respectively a former student and a postdoc. In short, I came all prepared, as though this was my destiny. My wife, Nancy, who is not a physicist, and had so far met only the fun-loving, quirky physics types, did not have a clue of what was going through my mind, as I am sure went through the minds of many past and future wannabe postdocs of Walter.