Caltech Library News

Collections in Preparation: The Papers of Gerald J. Wasserburg (born 1927)

With the assistance of a grant from the American Institute of Physics, the Archives staff will organize the extensive Gerald J. Wasserburg papers into the following categories: correspondence, Caltech (institutional and divisional) documents, the Lunatic Asylum lab and working group, government and organizational files, writings and conferences, and biographical and pictorial material. The most extended and perhaps richest body of material, running to approximately 35 to 40 archival boxes, concerns Wasserburg's long association with NASA and his membership in the Lunar Sample Analysis Planning Team and Lunar Sample Review Board throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Wasserburg was also a meticulous researcher and a devoted teacher, and the files relating to his laboratory and to his many students and postdocs give a vivid picture of the conduct of a major scientific enterprise at Caltech from the early 1960s until approximately 2001.

The entire collection is expected to occupy just over 100 archival boxes, or approximately 50 linear feet. The Wasserburg papers are scheduled to be ready for use by late 2009.