Klauderfest Guestbook

Robert Alicki

Dear John,

It was a pleasant thing for me to learn from your colleagues of your approaching magic 70th birthday as it gives me the opportunity of adding my good wishes to those of your many friends, colleagues, students, readers of your books and papers, collaborators and canoeing companions. (I dare to place myself somewhere in the intersection of these sets.)

I wish you good health and long years of further activity as scientist and teacher. Your life has been so full of great achievements and well-earned successes that you must feel great satisfaction.

Please accept my heartiest congratulations.

Always sincerely yours

Robert Alicki

Iwo Bialynicki-Birula

Dear John,

Unfortunately, my body will not be able to travel to Florida for your birthday, but my spirit will be there. Over the years we had so many encounters of the most pleasant kind: Murray Hill, Syracuse, Bulgaria, USSR, many times in Poland, and other places that I do not even remember.

Sophie is joining me in wishing you all the best: retirement without retirement, seventy without seventy, and most of all high spirits and good health.

Iwo Bialynicki-Birula

Jinky B Bornales

Friendship! mysterious cement of the soul! Sweetener of life! and solder of society!

-Robert Blair-

I never know that the meeting in Jagna would be a start of a wonderful friendship. Thank you for your friendship. It's something I will always treasure. And on this occasion of your 70th birthday, I wish you all the happiness in life. It is my prayer that you will have even more fruitful years ahead: more time to write scientific publications, do researches and to see the different faces of the world.

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY PROF. JOHN.

Keep looking up :-)

All the best,

Jinky

Chris Isham

Dear John

It is with the greatest pleasure that I send you my greetings on the occasion of your 70th birthday. Over the years I have had the privilege of collaborating with a number of distinguished researchers, but I particularly enjoyed working with you, not least because of the prodigious energy and enthusiasm which you bring to everything you do! I also admire greatly the way you have always developed your own ideas and followed them through without worrying about the fads and fancies that dominate so much of our profession---this is a rare quality, and one I especially appreciate.

Salutations my friend: and the very best for the next decade.

With warmest personal regards

Chris Isham

Jean-Pierre Gazeau

Dmitry Gitman

Dear John:

It is a pleasure for me to congratulate you with the remarkable date. Fortunately, you have arrived at this date in a very good shape both in health and scientific creativity. For me was a big luck to know you personally after many years using results and ideas of your research. It was a good surprise to find not only a great scientist but a very nice person, one does not meet often this combination... . I wish to you a lot of years of fruitful research and healthy life.

Faithfully yours

Dmitry Gitman

Jan Govaerts

Dear John,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!

On this most special day, I didn't want to miss wishing you a most happy day, with some surprise celebrations maybe later in the day. I wish you many more years of happily doing physics and mathematics and putting your mind to nagging problems, enjoying a good health and most importantly, surrounded by the love of your family and the friendship of your many friends the world over.

And keep your secret,

"Always young at heart",

shining in your eyes!

My most sincere and warmest wishes for

A MOST HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!

Jan

Contributed article: "Quantized Cosmological Constant in One-Dimensional Matter Coupled Quantum Gravity" ps

Gerhard C Hegerfeldt

Contributed message pdf

Hajo Leschke

Dear John,

It's a great pleasure to express all my best wishes on the occasion of your 70th birthday!

Since I first met you in Antwerp 1977, I have always admired your scientific productivity, your clarity in presentation and, last but not least, your pleasant personality.

I would have loved to participate in the "Klauderfest" on Feb.9, 2002 in Gainesville, but unfortunately I am unable to do so because of teaching obligations.

John, I heartily hope that you are doing well!

Best regards, also to your family,

Hajo

Enrico Onofri

Contributed message ppt

Bohdan Lev
Andrey Semenov
Constantin Usenko

Dear Prof. Klauder,

We are very glad to congratulate you heartily with your 70-th birthday.

We pay high tribute to your scientific achievements in the most fundamental areas of the modern theoretical physics.

During the whole your scientific career you, being a real Albert Einstein's scientific grandson, proceed with and continue to develop all those scientific trends that were actively worked out by Einstein and, right after him, by your tutor - John Wheeler.

We are sure that new basic truths are waiting for you on this way.

We wish you many and many happy years of active creative work.

Sincerely yours,

Bohdan Lev, Constantin Usenko, Andrey Semenov.

Asher Peres

Happy birthday John!

I live too far from Florida to be able to attend the symposium organized in your honor. Instead of another scientific contribution, I'll just tell you of what I remember of our encounters here and there over the years. I still have the photo taken during the Trieste conference in 1972, where we are a few seats apart in the fifth row of the lecture hall. Dirac and Heisenberg are in the first row, Bell and Jauch in the second one. Noblesse oblige.

In February 1979 I started my first visit to Bell Labs, which was then a great national laboratory. You picked me up at the Madison train station and drove me to a supermarket, and then to the house you had rented for me. This was a historic day, but for another reason: the Shah of Iran fell on that day. I was very happy at Bell Labs. Once I asked someone why I was treated so well to do just what was of interest to me. The answer: ``We need people like you to improve the intellectual atmosphere. It's like putting flowers in the parking lot. This does not help parking, but this makes it more pleasant.'' Then one day, I met an Israeli physicist (solid state) who was surprised to see me there. He asked: Asher, what are you doing at Bell Labs? I answered: ornamental physics.

During that visit I was invited to a lunch given in honor of your 25th anniversary at Bell. You received as jubilee gift a big clock with your name engraved on it. When you opened the box, you said that there was a misprint in your name. It was written KLANDER. The master of ceremonies (I forgot who he was) almost fainted. He trembled as he looked at the clock and then exclaimed: the spelling is correct! Everyone laughed at your good joke.

My visit ended on May 1st, and you drove me to Princeton. In the way, I read a curious article in PRL on free electron lasers. It could not be correct. I wrote a Comment which is my shortest article (12 lines). It is written very politely: ``This result, due to faulty approximations, is obviously incompatible with quantum theory, because it violates the superposition principle.'' Which institution should I credit in the byline? Bell? Princeton? John Klauder's car?

After that I visited John Wheeler in Austin, and then John Bell at CERN. Talking to Bell (that is, John Bell, not Bell Labs) was a traumatic experience. I wrote to you that I lost faith in physics. What should I do? You answered ``keep your tools sharp.'' I followed your advice, and I recovered from the trauma. One day at CERN, I met an Israeli physicist (high energy physics, of course) who asked: Asher, what are you doing here at CERN? Apparently, I am always out of place. I am like Kipling's cat: ``I am the cat who walks by himself, and all places are the same for me.''

Our next encounter was in Bern where you arranged for me a two week visit in 1980. Soon afterward you were my guest in Technion. You came with your son John C., and you continued to manage JMP by remote control. In the summer of 1981 I was again at Bell Labs for five weeks and I learnt many new things from you. Thereafter we only met at conferences. At one of them, Agnes asked you: why don't you or Asher get a Nobel prize? You modestly answered: because our work is not closely related to experiments. I hope we'll meet again many times, even if it's not in Stockholm.

All good wishes,

Asher

W P Peterson

As a graduate student, Morton Hammermesh frequently loaned me his editing office for the Journal of Mathematical Physics - a smoke-free environment among other delights. Thus it was that John Klauder, a world expert on path integrals and deservedly famous mathematical physicist, became known to me. In the Summer of 1981, five years of computer science to my credit, but likewise five years of forgotten physics, I arrived at Bell Laboratory. Secretly hoping to meet John, with luck perhaps to learn far more than I had from Feynman and Hibbs' book, my wait wasn't long at all. About a year later, this delightful gentleman showed up in my office looking for a hacker to help him simulate stochastic processes using a Runge-Kutta algorithm he'd cooked up. This was great good fortune.

It was far better than could have been imagined. John is not only a man of deep experience and accomplishment, but a charming, friendly, and kindly one as well. His best quality, however, is an almost childlike enthusiasm. It is not enough to be smart and hard working, although he has these qualities in abundance. It is his bubbling enthusiasm and generosity which propel him. Who else could inspire students and colleagues as he does?

So it is that John retains a 7 year old's enthusiasm but ten times that many years of experience. On this special birthday, I can only with it is a happy one for a larger-than-life very special character.

Dot Putyrske

Michael F Reid

It is a pleasure to enclose a card from the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Canterbury on the occasion of John Klauder's 70th birthday.

I met John back in the 1980s when I was at the University of Hong Kong and he was at Bell Laboratories. He emailed me asking if we would like him to give a seminar. Luckily I did recognize who he was, but I couldn't figure out where we could have met. It was only when he arrived that he confessed that he simply picked my name out of the APS membership list. Meeting John was perhaps the most useful benefit of my years of membership!

John visited us here in New Zealand in 1994, supported by a bequest from the late Jack Erskine, who was a contemporary of Ernest Rutherford here in Christchurch in the 1890s. He gave an excellent series of lectures which were greatly enjoyed by those who participated.

The visit was not without its problems. Going from Summer in Florida to Winter in a poorly heated house in Christchurch was a bit of a shock to John and his family. I recall having to lend him more and more heaters, and I was a little worried that I would have none left to heat my own house! Luckily we achieved an adequete level of warmth before that happened.

John visited us again in the 1990s to walk the Milford Track. I hope that the card will remind him of some of the forests that he hiked through (our forests are now familiar to more people thanks to the movie The Lord of the Rings).

On behalf of my colleagues, I wish John well. I am only sorry that we are so far away that a personal appearance is not practical.

Sincerely

Mike Reid

Gert Roepstorff

Contributed article: "Beyond Conventional Quantum Mechanics" ps

Andrei Slavnov

Dear John!

It's a great pleasure to send my warmest regards to you on the occasion of your 70th anniversary.

You belong to the generation which created modern theoretical physics. Your classical works on coherent states are well known to specialists working in different branches of physics. Your nonstandard approach to quantization opens new ways in quantum theory.

People working in theoretical and mathematical physics appreciate your substantial contribution to development of closer relations between these disciplines both by your personal researches and as a president of International Assosiation of Mathematical Physics.

Your enthusiasm and activity is an excellent example for young scientists.

I wish you good health, new achievments. Be happy!

Andrei Slavnov.

Kelly Sloan

Dear John,

Warm wishes to you and congratulations on your 70th birthday. I'm sorry that I could not attend your celebration at the University of Florida. It sounds like a fitting tribute to a wonderful person. You are a treasured friend and I have truly enjoyed knowing you these last ten years. Here's to many more years of happiness, success, and friendship. Best wishes and happy birthday!

Your friend
Kelly Sloan

Tuong Truong

Dear John,

I got a message from P L Robinson about your 70th birthday and was really impressed that you have achieved such a long and fruitful carreer. I would like to thank you for inviting me to the ceremony of Feb 9, 2002 However due to many duties at Cergy I will not be able to come although I really wish I could be there. If the date was set somewhere in the week of February, then we have a recess of one week and this is more favorable for me.

Anyhow, I wish to send in a birthday not as suggested by Robinson as a tribute to my high appreciation for what you have done for me all my life long. As I recall we have met in October 1968 in Bell Labs after my Columbia Qualifying examination. The meeting was arranged by Luttinger who was then a consultant at Bell Labs. I have spoken to all members of the Theory Dept but found areal coincidence of interest only with you!

My thesis went slowly at the beginning. Partly because I got married and had a baby at the time. But we then had a great time about computing the energy levels of the anharmonic oscillator with the theory of Continous representation! H Ezawa was at the time our witness!!

I have kept in mind your teaching of thinking all my life long and has passed on to generations of thesis students. Two principles dominate research, as I have learned from you:

NOTHING IS REALLY NEW

EVERY TOPIC IS RELATED TO OTHER TOPICS

But I can never forget the beautiful way you describe physics, in particular in your Boulder lecture of 1971!! All you papers contain always a kind of poetry...

Well, in this starting new year I wish to send you my best wishes for another successful year and plenty of HEALTH to last for several more decades as it is the case for your mentor Prof John A Wheeler!

Please say hello also to Mrs Klauder and your daughter Jenny.

With best regards

Contributed article: "Some Recollections of the early Seventies..." ps

Zsuzsanna Varga

Dear John,

Many congratulations on this special day! I wish you very good health and lots of joy in your work and with your family. God bless you. Unfortunately I can't attend the symposium because I have to look after my six month old baby, but I'm sure it will be a great and unforgettable day. We will be there with you in our thoughts. We wish you a Happy birthday!! With lots of love,

Zsuzsa and family

Giuseppe Vitiello

Contributed article: "DECOHERENCE?" ps pdf

Evelyn Weimar-Woods

Dear John,

what a remarkable stay I had as your guest at Bell Labs in 1975/76 !!! Do you remember how we met? I only learnt later how much I frightened you when I drove you in my little orange VW-Porsche on a German autobahn (where of course there is no speed limit). But I think I made up for this later by helping you to get tickets for the Salzburg festival. I think I never told you how much I admired one of your talents. Namely, you used with every foreigner exactly the level of English that he or she felt comfortable with. Moreover, when the guest`s English improved, so did yours. Best wishes for you and your family and many happy returns,

Evelyn

E J Woods

Dear John

On the occasion of your 70th birthday It is nearly 40 years since our one joint publication (with Jim McKenna) on the classification of the tensor product representation of the canonical commutation relations. But I still remember clearly how much fun we had with this problem. The result was, and remains, a beautiful and clean application of your "tag" concept.

With best wishes,

Jim

John C Klauder