Arlan W. Mantz, Oakes Ames Professor of Physics at Connecticut College,
and Chair, Department of Physics, Astronomy and Geophysics
I'm married to Barbara Dae (nee Eichler) Mantz since 1963. Barb has a B. Sc. Degree
(1968) in Psychology from The Ohio State University. Barb is also a Registered
Nurse. We have one son, Yves Andre Mantz, who was born in Paris in 1974. Yves
has a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from MIT, and graduated from Franklin and Marshall
College with a B. A. Degree (1996), Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, with a
major in Chemistry and a minor in Physics. He is currently a post-doctoral student
at IBM Watson Research Center.
I received my B. A. Degree, cum laude, from Catawba College in 1962, and my
M. Sc. (1966) and Ph. D. (1969) Degrees in Physics from the Ohio state University.
I worked with K. Narahari Rao in the field of molecular spectroscopy. I also
spent some formidable years with Josef Pliva, Sergio Ghersetti, Dusan Papousek
and James Watson during that period. They and Gerhard Herzberg, a frequent visitor
to our laboratory and the graduate advisor of K. Narahari Rao, my advisor, were
professionally very influential to me.
Since Yves was born in France one might conclude that we lived there at some
time! I had a Post Doctoral Fellowship in 1973 and 1974 at the Laboratoire Aime
Cotton ( which at that time was Directed by Pierre Jacquinot ). I worked with
Pierre Connes and two former students, Guy Guelachvili and Jean-Pierre Maillard
in the field of high resolution Michelson Interferometry. This group invented
and developed the field. We had a very productive, and fun, period there. During
the 1960's I worked at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio where I studied Rocket Exhausts
Spectroscopically.
After our stay in France I was a Senior Scientist with Digilab, a company involved in the manufacture of Michelson Interferometers for several years, before becoming involved with tunable diode semiconductor lasers. I joined Laser Analytics in 1976, shortly after the company was founded. The company was purchased by Spectra-Physics (S-P) in 1979, and S-P was purchased in 1984 by Ciba-Geigy. I became President of Laser Analytics, Inc. and General Manager of Laser Analytics Division of Spectra-Physics in 1980. We sold Laser Analytics to Laser Photonics in 1989, at which time I left the company.
I spent five years at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania as an Associate Professor of Physics before joining the Physics and Astronomy Department at Connecticut College in my present position as the Founding Chair holder of the Oakes Ames Endowed Chair in Physics. (I met Oakes Ames and his wife at a concert during the Spring of -1995, and we had a delightful conversation! ).
I continue to do research with tunable diode lasers at Connecticut College
and at the Universite' Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris. Students are very much
involved in my research here, as they were at Franklin and Marshall College.
We have been publishing several papers, on the average, per year. Students who
worked with me are now in (or have recently completed ) graduate school in physics,
astronomy, materials Science, masters in business administration, secondary
school teacher masters program, electrical engineering, industrial engineering,
and patent law. Jobs include regional sales manager, financial analyst, business
consultant, patent clerk, industrial laser research and development. There are
many attractive opportunities for physics majors and minors in industry and
other fields.
We currently reside in Stonington, Connecticut, an idyllic village with a
wonderful harbor. We have been here since 1995.
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