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Meeting Janette Hegner. Work in Denmark with Niels Bohr

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John Wheeler Scientist
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Somehow, there were student parties, graduate student dances, roughly once a month. I don't know how I got elected to be chairman of the committee, but I did whatever was needed to make it work. And one of the young ladies, I'd like to take was- I had a fascination with foreign languages, a new window on the world- one of the ladies was the daughter of the professor of French there, Lucienne Chinard. And Lucienne was able to tell me a lot about life in Paris. And then, there was another- I became even more attached to Signe- S I G N E Benzon- B E N Z O N, daughter of a Danish merchant. Unfortunately, I did not take advantage of knowing her to learn Danish, that came only later. But I recall, after we'd been at some swimming excursion on Chesapeake Bay, her telling me afterwards that my knees didn't appeal to her.

John Wheeler, one of the world's most influential physicists, is best known for coining the term 'black holes', for his seminal contributions to the theories of quantum gravity and nuclear fission, as well as for his mind-stretching theories and writings on time, space and gravity.

Listeners: Ken Ford

Ken Ford took his Ph.D. at Princeton in 1953 and worked with Wheeler on a number of research projects, including research for the Hydrogen bomb. He was Professor of Physics at the University of California and Director of the American Institute of Physicists. He collaborated with John Wheeler in the writing of Wheeler's autobiography, 'Geons, Black Holes and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics' (1998).

Duration: 2 minutes, 6 seconds

Date story recorded: December 1996

Date story went live: 24 January 2008