Editing Appendix/CGH/WhatIsReal (section)

==University of California==
From 1974 - 1978 I was a graduate student in the Astronomy Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz (Lick Observatory).  Employing computational-science techniques, my research focused on developing a hydrodynamical algorithm that would facilitate modeling the transformation of interstellar gas clouds into stars.  Simulations were conducted in full three-dimensional generality and were especially designed to help astronomers understand how cloud fragmentation happens and, in particular, why stars preferentially form in pairs &#8212; as binary star systems.  Through my dissertation advisors, Peter Bodenheimer and David Black, I was afforded access to some of the largest computers of the day, at NASA's Ames Research Center.  

During this period of time, I also had many opportunities to interact with faculty at UC, Berkeley.  In the context of one &#8212; perhaps it was more than one &#8212; small-group discussion of broad problems that were currently facing astronomers in the star formation arena, <font color="orange">I had the pleasure of meeting Charles Townes</font>.  On pp. 206 - 207 of his book, "What Is Real?", Adam Becker tells how it came to pass that John Clauser was able to perform experimental tests of ''Bell's inequality'' in Charles Townes' research laboratory.  (See also Figure 9.2.) Although I was aware that Townes had "&hellip; won the Nobel Prize &hellip; for inventing the laser &hellip;", I had no idea, at the time, that this fundamental test of the behavior of quantum systems was actively being conducted in Townes' group at Berkeley.