I remember Lars Onsager sleeping throughout a lecture, yet still asking the most informative question at the end.
- David Chandler
I remember Bill Gelbart broke Robijn Bruinsma's arm (UCLA colleagues at the time) during a competitive arm-wrestling match at a Polymer Physics GRC chaired by Ed Kramer.
- Matthew Tirrell
I remember trying to convince conferees on a boat from Ventura Harbor that the dolphins were actually baby whales.
- Arno F. Spatola
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
The Electrochemistry GRCs in Santa Barbara were seminal to me. I entered the area of electrochemical research with scant formal training, as a one year postdoc, and worked my way into a major field through GRC interactions. To be sure, the wonderful setting on the ocean transmitted a certain magic to the conferences.
- William Geiger
The Metals in Biology GRC had a seminal and catalytic role in the development of the field of bioorganic chemistry. The Metals in Biology GRC provided the initial forum for inorganic chemists to mingle with biologists and biochemists at a time when there was very little prior interaction between those fields.
- John Groves