By chance, I picked up a collection of scientific essays today collected as a tribute to Leopold Felsen, a physicist, electrical-engineer, and theorist involved in numerical modeling of electromagnetic waves and fields. The book was published on the occasion of his being bestowed with an honorary degree from the Technical University of Munich. As a Jew growing up in Germany in 1924, he claims that the degree has a special significance for him. (His acceptance speech is included as a preface to the collection.) He emigrated to the US in 1940 and eventually served in the US Navy from 1943-1946. Quite a remarkable story.
What makes the preface truly stand out are the poems included. From "Wave Sensing of Complexity" :
When waves meet with complexity,
The modelers feel perplexity.
The options one can choose abound,
But how can those that work be found?
Statistically irregular,
Or smoothly scatters specular?
A blend of both? If not, why not?
We ponder, and then chuck the lot.
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