October 1, 1945
Dr. Bryce L. Crawford, Jr.
University of Minnesota
Institute of Technology
Minneapolis l4, Minnesota
Dear Bryce;
I nave been thinking over the question raised in your letter of September 24, about
the recommendation of a physical chemist for appointment in your department. I have
come to the conclusion that I can recommend Dr. Stanley M. Swingle to you.
Dr. Swingle got his Bachelor's degree at Montana in 1939, and his Ph. D. with us in
1942. Since then he has served as Research Fellow and Instructor in the Division
of Chemistry. For a couple of years he has been pretty largely in charge of our
freshman chemistry course; I have given about half of the lectures, and he has given
the remaining lectures and supervised the laboratory work, with the help of Teaching
Fellows. He is a man of very good appearance, rather slow in his speech, a good
logical lecturer, and a sound man generally.
In his research interests he has done a number of things. He carried out several
electron diffraction studies of molecules, and he also prepared a large number of
haptens, made antisera, and investigated their interactions in collaboration with
Dr. Pressman and me. Under the guidance of Professor Sturdivant, he designed and
constructed an excellent Tiselius apparatus, which presents many original features.
With Dr. Wright, he developed a method of manufacturing cells for this apparatus,
involving the use of a low melting-point glass as cement. He has made a great many
investigations of proteins with the Tiselius apparatus, and at present he is, at my
request, considering the design of some ultraoentrifuges. Partially because of the
press of war work, a number of his researches have not been published; however, he
is preparing them for publication, and they should be in print in a year or eighteen
months.
I think that Dr. Swingle would prefer teaching physical chemistry to elementary chemistry.
He would like to use physical-chemical methods in the study of proteins and related
substances, as his research program. This seems to me to be an excellent field,
and I think that a good chemistry department can afford to have such a man around.
Dr. Swingle is a very good collaborator. He has carried out Tiselius measurements
for a number of people in the Chemistry Department and Biology Department here.
His theoretical training has been pretty thorough - quantum mechanics, statistical
mechanics, and so on. He has not done any original work in this field. My opinion
is that he might well be a good teacher of such a subject as statistical mechanics,
but that he should not be classed as a theoretical man.
Continued ….
-2-
Dr. Bryce L. Crawford, Jr. October 1, 1945
Dr. Swingle is married to a very pleasant young woman. His father was Professor
of Biology and Dean of the Graduate School, I believe, at the University of Montana.
He died a couple of years ago.
I believe that Dr. Swingle would he interested in an appointment as Assistant Professor,
but not as Instructor, unless the salary were a good one. His basic salary as Instructor
at this Institute is $3,000.00 a year.
I shall ask Dr. Swingle to write to you or to Dr. Lind.
Sincerely yours,
Linus Pauling
LP:gw
P.S. The NDRC has turned down our suggestion that our contract be continued.
I think that probably the Institute will accept the Navy contract, for one year.
L. P.
