Friends and collegues messages of Dr. Woodman

In honor of Dr. Ronald Woodman
50 years of scientific
contributions at IGP and
the international
atmospheric and
ionospheric community.
Anecdotes and regards
“Here’s a short recollection of one of Ron
Woodman’s activities when he first arrived at
JRO (after receiving his PhD):
By Ben Balsley
Cooperative Institute for Research in
Environmental Science (CIRES)
Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Colorado at Boulder
Ron’s first task was to learn the intricacies of
the (then) new PB250 digital computer that
had arrived somewhat before he did at JRO.
Ron went into his office for a number od
days, finally emerging with a program that
would use all the PB250’s I/O, and would
demonstrate the system to a visitor.
Remember that, in those early days, the
input (and bootstrap program) was
accomplished using Mylar punch tape into a
tape reader. One of the PB outputs was via
the IBM typewriter. Ron’s program went like
this:
Anecdotes and regards
Load bootstrap
1. Load RW’s program tape
2. Wait
3. After a few seconds, the PB250
would communicate via the typewriter:
…..’Good Morning, Ron”…..
4. Ron would then type in: ‘Morning PB.
Hope you are fine. By the way I have a
friend with me”…. carriage return (C/R).
5. Wait a few seconds…
6. PB250 “Glad you brought a friend,
Ron. What is his/her name?”
7. RW: ‘His name is Alfredo ….C/R
8. PB250: ‘Hi Alfredo, glad to meet
you……Do you have a question for me
to answer?’…..
9. Alfredo (after thinking of a really hard
question, like: what is the round trip time
from the earth to the sun at the speed of
light?), types in his question…….C/R
10. PB250: ………….(making ‘busy’ noises
on the keyboard, like shifting)………..more
‘busy’ noises……..many seconds go by.
then:
11. PB250: ‘You know, Alfredo,…..as it turns
out, I’m pretty busy right now…..could you
come back later, maybe with a different
question?’
12. RW: ‘Fine, PB, we’ll come back
later…..Bye bye’…..C/R
13. PB250: ‘OK, then….later. Bye
Ron….Bye Alfredo’
14. PB250: Clicks OFF
Anecdotes and regards
“This picture show: Ron Woodman, Bela Fejer, Don
Farley, and Ben Balsley, standing on the JRO bridge
during a day when there is a pretty strong Huayco
flowing. The picture was taken in the late 1970s. It
shows the four of us when we were a lot younger,
pretty early in our careers, and when we all had more
and darker hair!.
We all prospered, in no small part because of our
starts in Peru. And we are all still healthy and pretty
active in our 70s (for 3 of us), and Bela is probably in
his 60s now.
My best wishes to Ron and all who are at the
ceremonies. It would be fun to be there.”
Some young guys at that same bridge in the
late 1970s
By Donald Farley
School of Electrical and
Computer Engineering
Cornell University
Anecdotes and regards
“I first met Ron in January 1972 when,
as a graduate student, I arrived at the
Lima airport and there he was waiting
for me. From that time on, we have had
a large number of productive scientific
discussions and pleasant social
interactions. One of the most
memorable ones occurred in the early
1980's during a car trip from Toronto to
Ithaca when Ron royally entertained my
wife Fran, Don Farley and me for about
4 hours with many stories of his
forgetfulness.
Congratulations Ron on your great 50
years as member of the IGP”.
By Bela Fejer
Utha State University
Deparment of Physics
Anecdotes and regards
“Ron might get a kick
out of this photo from
Japan in 1989. I had
just started my postdoctoral at RASC
and Ron was a
visiting scientist.
The photo was taken
seconds before he
threw me out of the
Sumo ring!”
By Robert Palmer
Atmospheric Radar
Research Center
University of Oklahoma
Anecdotes and regards
By César Gonzales
IBM Fellow, Global Research
Electronics Executive
“Con mucha satisfacción me uno espiritualmente a
las celebraciones para conmemorar 50 años de
contribuciones del Dr. Ronald Woodman a la
ciencia y al Perú a través del IGP. Ron Woodman
ha sido un líder y un innovador en varios campos.
En el campo de la ciencia su liderazgo y
creatividad han avanzado fundamentalmente
nuestro entendimiento de la ionósfera y
mesósfera, tanto así que sus contribuciones han
sido reconocidas y galardonadas mundialmente.
Sus contribuciones a la ciencia geofísica en el
Perú son también muy reconocidas, esto a pesar
de los obstáculos económicos, politicos y
estructurales de nuestro país en desarrollo. Parte
importante de esta última contribución ha sido el
papel que Ron ha jugado en educar y promover...”
Anecdotes and regards
“...generaciones de jovenes científicos peruanos que ahora están dejando su marca por
todo el mundo.
Yo conocí a Ron Woodman cuando regresé de la UNI —hace ya más de 35 años — y él
me contrató para trabajar en el ROJ...”
Yo recuerdo mis años en Jicamarca como uno de los más intensos, donde bajo la dirección
de Ron, absorbí muchisímo conocimiento práctico en diseño digital electrónico y en
programación. Años después el también fue mi jefe en el Observatorio de Arecibo en Puerto
Rico, esta vez trabajando más en ciencia de ionosfera. A Ron también le debo el haber sido
aceptado en la Universidad de Cornell para seguir mis estudios de post-grado, y a él le debo
mucho de mis logros como ingeniero y cientifico a comienzos de mi carrera profesional. El
tiempo me ha llevado por otras rutas de cienca e ingeniería, lejos de la ionósfera, pero yo
siempre he mantenido a Ron Woodman en mi mente y corazón, como un ejemplo de
dedicación, de creatividad, y fundamentalmente como un ejemplo de como un buen ser
humano debe llevar su vida”.
Anecdotes and regards
“It is a great pleasure to me to learn that you are facilitating
Ron on his completing 50 tears of association wit IGP.
By Ramgopal Rastogi
Indian National Science
Academy,
Physical Research Laboratory
I have a very happy memories of Ron during my visit to
Peru and during meeting him in International meetings. I
had visited Peru first time during first ISEA 1962 and later
during URSI General meetings. I came to know of him
during my second meeting . By that time my group had
collected six years hourly ionospheric E and F region drifts
at Thumba and I wanted to confirm our results with the
Jicamarca Doppler drifts. .Ron offered me all the facilities of
his institute to examine the Jicamarca and Huancayo data. I
stayed in Peru for more than three months and Ron
extended me all the hospitalities and facilities. This had
been very useful and rewarding period for me when I...”
Anecdotes and regards
“...togeter with him could identified some interesting phenomena in equatorial
ionosphere which I could not have detected from my own observations in India.
We could confirm the relationship between the Equatorial Counter Electrojet and Westward
electric field. We could identify that the reversal of vertical F region drift to upward direction
at Jicamarca at any time of the night followed by the generation of Equatorial spread F at
Huancayo. I could find that a sudden northward turning of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field
was associated with the reversal of the ionospheric electric field at Jicamarca. He later
advised me to study the major magnetic storm in relation to Jicamarca drifts and I could
show that some of the major effects of storms at Equatorial station are due to electric field of
solar origin. Thus Ron had changed my whole field activities leading to my present day
interest on the Solar Weather Disturbance and Equatorial Electrojet.
I wish him a continued active ,happy and healthy and contended life”.
Anecdotes and regards
“Stopping on the highway with Ron
happened during my visit in February,
2006, when I spent the weekend with
him and Gladys in Paracas, and we
drove together back to Lima. We were
peering at the roads, speculating about
how much rain might have fallen and
how saturated the sand might be, and
Ron decided abruptly to answer the
question by taking data”.
By Jim LaBelle
Space Physics Deparment
Dartmouth College
Anecdotes and regards
“Although I am very proud of myself for
taking last moment decisions, and I'd
exactly like to do that to join the
celebrations of Ron's 50th year of
science by booking a flight this morning
and fly out tomorrow morning, I am
unable to do that simply because of the
blue and red map attached below. Look
at South America. All the blue countries
don't require visa from Turks. But the
red ones do. So, congratulations and
thanks Ron for all your contributions to
science and our efforts to understand
Nature”.
By Erhan Kudeki
Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Memorable Snapshots
Ronald Woodman at SOUSY 1978
Picture sent by Jurgen Rotteger
Memorable Snapshots
Dr. Ronald Woodman next to ?,
Picture sent by Jurgen Rotteger
Memorable Snapshots
Workshop on Coherent Radars for Investigations of the Lower and Middle
Atmosphere
MPI Lindau, Germany
14 – 16 August 1978
Picture got from Jurgen Rotteger
Memorable Snapshots
EISCAT Meeting, 1982
Picture got from Annual EISCAT Report, 1982
Memorable Snapshots
EISCAT Svalbard Radar on 22 August 1996
Dr. Ronald Woodman talking to Prof. Willian Gordon and his wife Elva
Picture got from EISCAT Annual Report 1996-97
His experiments
Jicamarca Radar Power Profile
Measurement of echo power
Pictures got from Jurgen Rotteger
Miscellaneous
Excursion at Islilla with UDEP students, 1990
Miscellaneous
4x4 Comptetition, TATT, 2004
In honor of Dr. Ronald Woodman
Congratulations!
Picture got from Automas publicacion, Nº133