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Photographed a 25th anniversary conference for the Center for Excellence in Education, the people who run RSI. Ironically, I was rejected from RSI many years ago.
OK, so I was worried about this assignment for a couple reasons.
First, I wasn't 100% sure what the expectations of CEE would be,
because the man-at-lectern photo from a conference is not all that
interesting, unless the man himself is interesting. So in some sense, I
have limited control over how good the photos would be, in terms of
subject matter. Reassuringly, the speakers lined up were big names,
such as Dean Kamen (shown above). Second, it was a long assignment -
just over 10 hours, starting at 8 AM.
But I
think it turned out rather well, despite some lighting and color balance
issues. Note for the future, technicians who operate the AV equipment
should blank the LCD projector if it is not in use, and really shouldn't
start running a presentation at the wrong time. Also, spotlights are
blinding and from a photo standpoint, really, really blue.
Highlight
of my day was watching a 60 Minutes interview from the late 80s with
the Admiral Hyman Rickover (leader of the effort to build the USS
Nautilus), who founded CEE in the 80s to get talented students
interested in science and engineering. (Incidentally, the nation
continues to be short on systematic programs to encourage research.
NASA Sharp, which got me started, was terminated when NASA cut funding
in favor of programs targeting a younger audience. The California
Science Center's CAST program, who funded me for a summer of research,
made a similar decision with regard to its outreach budget. This more
or less leaves RSI as the last bastion of funded high school research.)
Admiral Rickover turns out to be a character. I've searched for the interview video online, but the best I can find is this transcript of the interview with Diane Sawyers. Here are some choice bits.
SAWYER: What is at the heart of leadership? Is it in personality? Charisma?
AD RICKOVER: No. For example, I have the charisma of a chipmunk. So what the hell difference does that make?
SAWYER:
It was certainly not his personality that won Rickover three
Distinguished Service Medals and, to celebrate the Nautilus, a
ticker-tape parade through the streets of New York - a long way from the
tiny town in Russian-occupied Poland where Rickover was born, the son
of a tailor; a long way for the boy who landed at Ellis Island at the
age of six and grew up in a ghetto in Chicago, and won an appointment to
the Naval Academy at Annapolis. He was terrified he wouldn't make it.
He became the class grind.
...
OFFICER:
One young man there came in with long hair and he told him he had to
choose between the long hair and the program. And he walked out and
said, 'My girlfriend likes this ponytail."
AD RICKOVER: Fine. That was the end. The little son of a bitch should have gotten cut it all off and gotten a wig.
SAWYER:
I heard that you had people come in and they sat - you sat them down in
chairs in which some of the legs were shorter than the others.
AD RICKOVER: No, no, no. Only two. I'd saw off six inches from two -
SAWYER: Oh, just two.
AD
RICKOVER: Only two, and it - it was difficult because they kept - it
was a shiny chair and they kept sliding off. So it was - they had to
maintain their wits about them while they were asked these questions
while they were sliding off the chair.
SAWYER: And what about those that you brought in and made stand in the broom closet?
ADMIRAL
RICKOVER: Well, they came in, they gave stupid answers. So I thought
I'd give them a chance to think. I'd put them in there for a couple of
hours, three hours, and it gave them plenty of time to think.
SAWYER: But what were you trying to do with these young men who came in to you?
ADMIRAL RICKOVER: I was trying to draw out of them what they had potentially in them.
SAWYER:
A young ensign from Georgia eluded the broom closet, but couldn't
escape Rickover's demand for excellence. But did you hate him a
little?
PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER: There were a
few times, yeah, when I hated him, because he demanded more from me than
I thought I could deliver.
SAWYER: James Earl Carter hated him, revered him and became his Commander in Chief. Is anyone his boss?
PRESIDENT
CARTER: I never really felt like his boss, although he would say that I
was. I'm not sure that he ever acknowledged it really deep down in his
heart.
