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DTSTAMP:20241017T213000Z
UID:1727118676896@events.msu.edu
CATEGORIES:Conferences / Seminars / Lectures
DTSTART:20241017T213000Z
DTEND:20241017T213000Z
SUMMARY:Janet Gordon - My Inquiry into Ability, Disability, Love, and Physics: The Story of Morton and Berni
DESCRIPTION:
 Abstract\n
 \n
 From the speaker:\n
 \n
 "A few years 
 ago, I began to write about my parents, 
 Mort and Bernice Gordon, to solve the mystery 
 of their remarkable partnership. My father, 
 a blind physicist, and my mother, his reader, 
 who lived with spina bifida, were bound together 
 by love and necessity decades before recognition 
 of their rights as disabled people. 
 I explored their letters, interviewed Dad's colleagues, 
 searched for his publications, and 
 listened to audio tapes of their work. As I 
 revisited the scenes we shared, I developed a 
 new understanding of how and what they taught 
 me; my sister, Anne; his students; and their 
 community. \n
 \n
 Mort Gordon was a college student 
 during World War II, when he learned that 
 he was going blind from retinitis pigmentosa. 
 Then Mort made two important decisions: he 
 began studying physics, and he courted and 
 married Bernice Rubinstein. These choices enabled 
 him to contribute to the world of accelerator 
 physics and raise a family. Mort, as a 
 new PhD, faced discrimination because of "decreased 
 vision," then worked on an innovative 
 cyclotron project at Oak Ridge National 
 Laboratory, which led him to take a job 
 at Michigan State University and create something 
 new.  Mort and Bernice Gordon ingeniously 
 found ways for the professor to teach his classes, 
 develop the mathematics and computer 
 models essential for MSU's innovative cyclotrons, 
 and share knowledge with colleagues around 
 the world. Their story lives at the intersection 
 of disability history and physics history. 
 It illuminates the importance of sustained 
 curiosity and the benefits of persistence, 
 mentoring, and collaboration."\n
 \n
 Bio\n
 \n
 Janet Gordon grew up in East Lansing, Michigan, 
 and graduated from the University of Michigan 
 in 1974, with aspirations to make the world 
 better. She received an MA in business administration 
 from George Washington University. 
  As a federal banking regulator, she developed 
 guidance on the Community Reinvestment 
 Act, which encourages banks to serve low- and 
 moderate-income communities. As Associate Director 
 of Community Affairs at the Federal Deposit 
 Insurance Corporation, Janet improved consumer 
 education to better serve people with 
 disabilities. After retiring in 2018, Janet 
 studied writing at The Writer's Center in Bethesda, 
 Maryland, and Politics and Prose bookstore 
 in Washington, D.C. In All the Ways You 
 Taught Us, A Memoir of Ability, Disability and 
 the Pursuit of Meaning, she chronicles lessons 
 about inquiry, disability, and meaningful 
 living learned from Mort and Bernice Gordon's 
 remarkable lives.\n
 \n
 Morton M. Gordon and Bernice 
 Gordon\n
 \n
 Morton M. Gordon (1924-2012), 
 born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, attended 
 Rutgers University, graduated from the University 
 of Chicago, and received a PhD in physics 
 from Washington University in 1950. Mort was 
 instrumental in the design of a new breed 
 of cyclotrons. By the time he arrived at Michigan 
 State University in his thirties, he was 
 almost completely blind from retinitis pigmentosa. 
 Nonetheless, in 1959 he was the second 
 person hired to design the first particle accelerator 
 at MSU's Cyclotron Laboratory. Mort 
 was the principal theoretical physicist guiding 
 the mathematics and computer models essential 
 to its development. He continued his contributions 
 at the National Superconducting Cyclotron 
 Laboratory until 1999. He was a professor 
 of physics for 50 years, and his students 
 went on to help build accelerators all over 
 the world. Mort's principal collaborator in 
 life, Bernice Gordon (1928-2007), also grew up 
 in Atlantic City and graduated from the New 
 Jersey College for Women in 1950. Bernice was 
 born with spina bifida, which slowly reduced 
 her mobility over the course of her life. In 
 addition to a half century of service as Mort's 
 dedicated (and unpaid) reader, she was a 
 political organizer, a participant in the Lansing 
 area Jewish community, and a lover of literature 
 who influenced the reading of her family 
 and members of her book clubs. Mort and 
 Bernice Gordon raised two daughters and left 
 legacies for the next generations. \n
 \n\n
 Price: free\n
 Sponsor: public\n
 Contact name: Bob Patterer\n
 Contact email: events@frib.msu.edu\n
 for more info visit the web at:\n 
 https://frib.msu.edu/gateway/events/talk-17oct2024\n
LOCATION:Facility for Rare Isotope Beams
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