I had a dream

Contents

INTRODUCTION 
The role of Insomnias and Other Brain Short Circuits in my scientific work 
To Jenny and other women 
A feeling of perpetual inadequacy 
Why Physics? 
Why a scientific biography and for whom? 
Why bother? 

PART I — T HE FIRST 25 Y EARS 
I. MASTER (1960) A ND PHD (1966) AT ULG, BELGIUM 
Bachelor and Master degree 
An early dreamer 
In search of a PhD research subject 
Finding a personal research project in dispersion forces 
Working out an exactly soluble model of dispersion forces 
My first insomnia 
Polarization waves: a collective method of treating dispersion forces 
Mind these factors 2π 
The lure of avionics 
Deriving the perturbation expansion in one go 
The ugly head of failure 
Exploring the retardation effects 
Writing up my thesis 
Looking for a postdoc 

II. POSTDOC IN COLUMBUS, OHIO 39
Getting started 
Discovering surface science 
Another kind of introspection 
Some side stories 
Publishing papers while dodging numerical work 
Mathematics, Physics and billiards 
Billiards is a good game 

III. TRIESTE 
In preparation for Trieste 
Moving to Trieste (1970) 
Quantizing the phonon field 
Insomnia via Revoltella 
Another collaborator 

IV. NOORDWIJK (1971-72) 
A new place 
FIM and Jason's peaks in FIS 
Jason's peaks interpreted as a failure to gain spectrum 
A surprise: surface plasmons and the image potential 
My serious blunder with field ion desorption (FID) 
Surface plasmons and the surface energy of metals 
An incident in Göteborg 
"The easiest person to fool is oneself" (R. Feynman) 
Working with Paul Cutler 

V. UNAMUR-IBM YORKTOWN (1974-1979) 
Moving again 
Digging my hole in UNamur 
Sabbatical at IBM T. J. Watson Laboratory, Yorktown Heights, N.Y. 
Back to UNamur. Steve's Progress 
Helium Excimer fluorescence 
A patent for a VUV source 
An update on my Billiards 

VI. HREELS-IBM ALMADEN (1981-1994) 
Fresh blood in LPS 97
HREELS from anisotropic material surfaces 
HREELS from plane stratified media and superlattices
A few mischiefs and other side stories 
Confessionals 
Sabbatical at IBM Almaden 
The C60 Bombshell 
POW in Fullerite
Dust in the universe 

PART II — T HE N EXT 25 Y EARS 117
VII. DNA, CNT (1997-2000)
Festschrift in 1997 
Dreaming of a striptease 
A funny incident in Kirchberg, Austria 
A video From Light to Life, "De la Lumière à la Vie" 
Interest in Molecular Biology 
Jean Vandenhaute and the Collège Belgique 
Collisions in the universe 
Re-doing the Miller-Urey experiment 
de Duve vs Monod 
The Institute and the Journal of Chemical Education 
An insomnia for an optical slide of both A-DNA and B-DNA 
CCV Theory transported from DNA to carbon nanotubes (CNT) 

VIII. GAIN SPECTRA. PART I (2000-2008) 
A meeting in Waillet 
Shock and fists at a Brandt-Ritchie workshop 
Intermezzo: Anniversaries in 2005 and 2013 in San Sebastian 
A memorable conference at the Belgian Academy 

IX. GAIN SPECTRA. PART II (2008-2012)
Brainstorming at DIPC on C60-Arq+ gain spectra 
The breakthrough (2009): the failure-to-gain idea 
Mind the gaps. The role of the σ-plasmons 
The slaying of a beautiful hypothesis 
The two-electron spectra 
Publishing the results (2010) 

X. THE BOMB A ND T HE SWASTIKA (2005-2012) 
The making of the A-bomb 
Uranverein, Alsos and Epsilon 
The Farm Hall Transcripts 
Einstein's letter at the theatre 
A Play in Four Acts 

XI. ATOMIC RICOCHETS (2012-2014) 
Ion scattering at grazing incidence 
Atomic ricochets 
Dodging machine calculations 

XII. TRIBUTE TO JEAN-POL V IGNERON 
Recruting Jean-Pol 
Lord of Living Light 
An absurd fate 

XIII. THE GANG OF FOUR OR FIVE.
HOMAGE TO PEDRO ECHENIQUE 
The rise of friendships 
The first encounter 
Pedro takes off 
A passionate mind for the scientific culture 
The gang 

I H AD A D REAM 

LOOKING BACK 
Breadth of interest 
An apology 
The joy of discovery 
Why do people do science? 
The right to make mistakes in scientific research 
One or two achievements which I am most proud of 
           Acknowledgements 

LIST OF ACRONYMS