Robert Gluckstern, 1924-2008

Publication date: Mon, Dec 29, 2008 - 5:30pm

Robert L. Gluckstern, 84, who was Head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy as well as Vice Chancellor and Provost at UMass Amherst, died of lymphoma on December 17, 2008. Bob Gluckstern was born in Brooklyn, NY and received his BS in electrical engineering at City College of New York, He was awarded a Ph. D. in physics from MIT in 1948. He spent 14 years at Yale University before he came to UMass as Head of Physics and Astronomy.

Bob came to UMass in 1964 at the height of the University's great expansion in size. For a few years faculty members were added to the Department at the rate of six to eight per year. Many of the Department's senior members, some of whom have retired in recent years, were hired by Bob. He was interested in hiring people who were excellent teachers as well as good researchers.

In 1969 he moved up the ranks to become Associate Provost and became Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost a year later. He remained in this position until 1975 when he moved to the University of Maryland to become Chancellor (a position now called "President"). He remained in that position for seven years after which he returned to teaching and research.

Bob's research was in accelerator physics, classical electricity and magnetism, and nonlinear dynamics. He published over 80 papers during his research career. He won the U. S. Particle Accelerator School Prize in 1999. A Gluckstern Chair of Physics was established in Bob's honor by his son Steven Gluckstern; the first recipient of the professorship will join the Department in the Fall of 2009.

Colleagues remember Gluckstern

I recall from the early 60's once mentioning Bob to his MIT thesis advisor, John Slater. His comment tells it all: "Yes, he was a very bright boy!". No matter what the task, he always performed brilliantly. First and foremost, he was a great applied mathematician, especially in the area of electromagnetism and accelerators. But you ask him to be department head or provost or chancellor and again the results are outstanding.
— Arthur R. Quinton, Professor Emeritus

UMass [had] an active atomic physics group - Ed Soltysik, Phil Jones, and Francis Pichanick (who also came from Yale). New Hasbrouck had just been finished, atomic physics was in old Hasbrouck. Bob was very supportive, though his primary emphasis at that time was on building up high energy physics. He was always going away to conferences to recruit people. One secret of his success was the open, accepting way he dealt with people.
— Robert Krotkov, Professor Emeritus

Bob hired folks that were not only good researchers but were also congenial, which matched his own personality. I felt like he was like a kind father figure, but also a very good leader and a smart physicist.
— William Mullin, Professor Emeritus

Bob was an extraordinary physicist, teacher, administrator – and musician. His enthusiasm and charm persuaded talented young theorists and experimentalists, many not expecting to change positions, to join him in the rapid build-up of the U.Mass.-Amherst Department of Physics & Astronomy in the mid-sixties. As co-head of the high-energy physics group, I much appreciated Bob's leadership and mentoring. He was ahead of his time in his support for women scientists in academia. At the University of Maryland, College Park, our daughter (now in space-physics research at CalTech) was fortunate to take Bob's graduate-level E&M course and to benefit from his encouragement of students.
— Janice Button-Shafer, Professor Emerita, UMass Physics, and Guest Scientist, LBNL

As a native of Springfield, Mass., I had a deep seated view of UMass as an agricultural college. It is a tribute to Bob's ability to share his vision with others that following a day's interview I had changed my opinion and decided to join the faculty in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
— Norman Ford, Former Professor of Physics

Bob was the original driving force behind the creation of a graduate astronomy program at UMass. To forward this plan, he assumed the chairmanship of the Five College Astronomy Department in 1965, at a time when Amherst College decided that it did not want such a program centered at Amherst. He then recruited me to take over the Chair in 1966, recruited Tom Arny as a 2nd astronomer, and together we recruited Ted Harrison. He was thereafter a strong supporter of building up Astronomy, both as Department Chair and later as Provost.
— William M. Irvine, Professor of Astronomy

Bob Gluckstern was an extraordinary person. He joined UMass when I was a senior undergraduate physics major and immediately began to transform the department. Even undergraduates could feel his energy and enthusiasm. There were about 18 faculty members when I graduated in 1965. In 1970 I began to look for a faculty position. UMass told me that it was not hiring in my area. Bob met me at the 1970 Annual Meeting of the APS in Chicago, remembered me, and asked how I was doing. I told him I was a postdoc and looking for a good faculty position. He asked if I had considered UMass and I told him that I had, but no position was available. He said, with words I will never forget, "Ask them again." I did, and I was hired – with no formal interview. Were it not for Bob, I would not have come back to UMass as faculty member number 52 to join a dramatically different department from the one I had left.
— Bob Hallock, Professor of Physics