"The Math/Physics Seminar at Lockheed Martin"

by Greg Coxson, PhD

Innovation in science and mathematics often relies on combining disparate elements that may not seem to hold any practical application by themselves.  It seems to follow, then, that to foster innovation, companies need to save a place for discussion of a wide array of topics, forgiving some divergence from the safe, obviously useful ones.  I see our company's Math/Physics seminar as providing a venue of this kind.

I work at Lockheed Martin in Moorestown, New Jersey.  We design, build and integrate weapon systems for our primary customer, the United States Navy.  I have been coordinating the Math/Physics seminar for two years with Dr. Bill Haloupek, a long-time friend recruited to our company from a Mathematics professorship in Wisconsin.  My own graduate training combines degrees in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering.

The mythology of the seminar dates it back to at least the early 1980s when our company was the Radio Corporation of America, better known as RCA.  At a defense company such as ours that has gone through corporate takeovers and the belt-tightening of the last two decades, entities such as the seminar are reminders of a time when the word "research" was used in a positive sense.  That the seminar continues is a wonder, a curiosity and a reason for quiet celebrations.  We feel we are holding the torch for the moment, and, like a succession of coordinators before us, expect to pass it on when we become too busy with other obligations.  The list of former coordinators and contributors includes some of the most creative scientists at our company some of whom, whether or not they attend, tell us they want the seminar to continue.

The seminar meets during lunch on Wednesdays at a regular room each week of the standard academic calendar.  A speaker presents a talk for an hour; some with lectures requiring more background are scheduled for two sessions on consecutive weeks.  One of our tasks is to recruit speakers for the roughly 14 slots available per term.  We often start the semester with an empty schedule.  However, by a mysterious process (I tend to call it magical), speakers come forth and by the end of the fourteen weeks we look back at a full list of excellent topics and speakers.  It is a gratifying phenomenon that reminds us that the seminar has a life of its own and all we do is act as  stewards, or perhaps simply catalysts.

When someone volunteers to give a talk, he or she opens a window to a special aspect of their work.  It is exciting to be in a position to share these often hidden interests of our work colleagues.  Perhaps an engineer has just completed a dissertation and want to share his contributions.  Or a professor from a local university hopes to build contacts and friendships at the company.  Maybe a scientist has continued working on something on her own time after funding ended and wants to present her results.  Or discussions of quarks through email or over the water cooler has led to an exciting revelation.  Being a part of the seminar puts us at the center of a continual, always changing bustle of activity.

The seminar provides a form for topics that can't be discussed elsewhere.  There exists an array of company training classes, many of top quality.  However, in these classes you would never find discussions of, say, magnetometry or coding theory, two recent seminar topics.  That's because these topics do not relate to current projects or business lines, and assume some background.  Our seminar is specified to offer graduate level topics.  We often hear back later from someone who has attended that a seemingly "blue-sky" topic was just what they needed.  I have experienced this myself.  I needed a result from quaternion theory, but not having my graduate notes, pulled it outof my seminar handout file, and used it directly in a satellite tracking problem, pleasing my boss at the time.

The attendance at a particular lecture depends very much on the topic.  We get larger audiences when the talk is related to current company business.  We've learned to expect the "math group" for math talks, "physics group" for the physics talk, et cetera.  So we look for a mix of topics: applied and theoretical, math and physics and engineering.  Sometimes our divergence from company business makes us a lightning rod for criticism, but at the same time it makes us visible for providing a valuable, albeit hard-to-measure, service to the company.

There are times I want to throw in the towel and hand the seminar to fresh hands.  These thoughts inevitably yield to the realization that this is a great part of my life right now and I just can't give it up.  Once again this semester you can bet that the seminar, however it plays out, is going to be good.