Outside the entrance to a lecture hall in Founders North hangs a picture of its namesake—Dr. Polykarp Kusch, who was the Eugene McDermott Professor of Physics. The Nobel laureate in physics spearheaded the conversion of a campus movie theater to a 2,535-square-foot, 185-seat lecture hall complete with laboratory bench and lectern. It provided the main stage from which Kusch made physics come alive for his students.
Hindsight: Margie Renfrow on Polykarp Kusch In April, retired UTD staffer Margie Renfrow attended
And I had some sandals with a little bit of mink on them,
The Polykarp Kusch Lecture Series: Concerns of the Live-
so I took it off my sandals and brought it to him. He
ly Mind, just as she has for 28 years. The series was estab-
used it to show static electricity. We improvised a lot.
lished in 1982 to honor Kusch, a Regental Professor and the Eugene McDermott Chair in Physics.
“He once said, ‘I describe myself as an adequate scientist, but I am a superb teacher.’”
Renfrow, whose 38-year career at UTD began when
Kusch shared the 1955 Nobel Prize in physics with
Kusch hired her as a temporary office worker in 1973, re-
Willis Lamb. At an address during the award ceremony,
cently reminisced about working for the University’s
Kusch said, “Science is the greatest creative impulse of
first Nobel laureate.
our time. It dominates the intellectual scene and forms
“Kusch said he came down here [to Texas from Co-
our lives, not only in the material things which it has
lumbia University in New York] with the idea that he
given us, but also in that it guides our spirit. Science
could help build a university that was perhaps different
shows us truth and beauty and fills each day with a fresh
than the ones that were currently in existence.
wonder of the exquisite order which governs our world.”
“Here, he created a course for non-scientists called Phenomena of Nature. It was a showpiece.
Kusch’s Phenomena of Nature is still taught today. Equipment has been updated or replaced over the years
“Kusch was better than Mr. Wizard. He would put
and the two-semester format is now condensed into
ice bombs in the corner of the room so they’d go off
one, but the essence of the course, the experiments that
about halfway through the lecture. He believed in things
demonstrate the principles of physics, remains un-
being dramatic. One time he said he needed some fur.
changed.
