Alumni Q&A
Alumni Q&A: Walter Benenson ’53
Nuclear Physicist, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University
WHAT ARE YOUR FIRST MEMORIES OF RIVERDALE?
I attended Hunter College Elementary School before switching to Riverdale in the middle of the sixth grade. Picture this: One day I’m at my progressive school for high IQ students, where practically everybody is Jewish, and the next day, I have to be at morning chapel! I actually enjoyed chapel, and it enlarged my view of the world.
At that time, Riverdale was an international school with a great diversity of students. It was wonderful. I made friends who were British, French, Chinese, Ethiopian, etc. That set me up for my future life because modern science is international. During my career, I lived in and visited dozens of countries. By the way, I was delighted that my granddaughter Kaya decided to attend Riverdale.
WHEN DID YOUR PATH TO SCIENCE BEGIN?
After Riverdale, I had a hard time settling into Yale. Those were hard years for me, and I had a lot of trouble with antisemitism, which was not a problem for me at Riverdale. Many of the students at Yale had parents and grandparents who had gone there, and they looked like they belonged there, even on the first day of classes. The other half of us felt really out of place.
During my sophomore year, I took physics because I needed a science course. Up until then, I had wanted to be a writer. After only a couple of weeks, the physics professor said to me, “You know, you should be a physics major.” I started as a physics major in my junior year. At the end of my senior year, I was offered a summer job designing reactors for Westinghouse Atomic Power, a top-secret job, and I was also offered a teaching assistant post at Wisconsin.
WHY NUCLEAR PHYSICS?
In graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I made a decision, maybe the best one I ever made. I picked a major professor who is an excellent mentor. I asked around, “Who’s the toughest, most demanding professor who requires the most work?” And they said, “Oh, it’s easy. It’s Heinz Barschall. He’s incredible.” He was perfect for me. I ended up in nuclear physics because he was a nuclear physicist who played a leading role in the Manhattan Project.
Experimental nuclear physics is an extremely hard field because you have to master many skills, such as machine shop, soldering, mechanical design, computers, and electrical and electronics projects. On top of this, you have to master the mathematical models of the atomic nucleus. It’s hard to imagine how hard you have to work.
When a prestigious lab in France decided they wanted an American postdoc, they called my major professor and told him to send his best student. So, I went to France after graduate school instead of becoming a professor, mainly because at age 25, I didn’t feel ready to become a professor.
During my postdoc in France, I was offered the job of starting a nuclear physics program at Michigan State University in East Lansing, where I still live today. It’s now a billion-dollar project [called FRIB], one of the biggest nuclear physics projects in the world.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO THOSE PURSUING CAREERS IN SCIENCE?
One thing I have learned is that you can be successful without making enemies. I don’t know if that idea came to me from morning chapel or from my own brain, but physicists can be hostile since just as in all sciences, researchers are trained to be very skeptical. Some of my best friends could have been my enemies. It really works to just talk to people rather than argue. What’s the point of life if you’re not getting along with people, right?
I’m still in touch with classmates, and my two oldest and closest friends are from Riverdale: Billy Joseph ’53 and Danny Aubry ’53. Billy followed me to Riverdale from Hunter. I went to his birthday party in first grade and recently his 90th. The same person, 85 years! When Billy arrived at Riverdale, he said, “Where’s Walt?” He was my best friend, and I would have followed him, too.