Terahertz Pioneer: Michael Bass "The THz Light at the End of the Tunnel"

As a young man growing up in the Bronx, NY, in the 1950s, Michael Bass was able to take full advantage of the museums and other unique multi-cultural offerings of a major metropolis. The extensive New York City subway system cost a nickel a ride, and the trip from the Bronx to the American Museum of Natural History on 83rd street in Manhattan, took less than an hour. Michael found himself visiting the museum frequently and developing an early interest in science. While attending the prestigious Stuyvesant High School, a public secondary school then on 15th street in Manhattan—which boasts four Nobel laureates as alumni—Michael remembers being very impressed by an exhibit at the United Nations building in NYC in the spring of 1955. The exhibit was part of the U.S. “Atoms for Peace” initiative. There he saw a functional cloud chamber, which focused his science interests on physics. In 1956 he enrolled in Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, PA, to formalize a career in science