In 1993, big, loveable Jonathan Fracter from NIST walked right through a plate glass window at Colby- Sawyer College. It was not funny at the time, of course, but it has been discussed anecdotally ever since - especially the speed with which the college put stickers of owls on the other windows.
- George R. Pilcher
Wolfgang Seifert, a very competitive guy, was challenged to hold one leg out while on his hands and knees to "show great strength." There he was for almost thirty minutes looking like a dog marking his territory... it was quite a start in science for a young graduate.
- Cindy Lee
One of the GRCs on Research at High Pressure got a bit too "athletic." By the fourth day, most of the front row was populated by injured baseball and soccer players with bandages, crutches, and taped limbs!
- James S. Schilling
By choosing different areas to emphasize each year, the Condensed Matter Physics GRC helped to counterbalance the centrifugal forces endemic to such large, rapidly growing fields in the process of splitting in subfields. Much cross-fertilization resulted.
- Morrel H. Cohen
The GRC on Polymer Colloids helped to bring together scientists from a wide range of disciplines, from physics to medicine. This type of interaction helped to improve the mechanism of synthesis method (emulsion polymerization), advance theoretical physics, and also find new applications for polymer colloids.
- D. Sunil Jayasuriya
At the morning coffee break during the Isotopes in Biological and Chemical Sciences Gordon Conference in 1998, 80 percent of the participants did not return. It turns out they were filming a "Baywatch" episode across the street on the beach at Ventura.
- John S. Blanchard