INSA AWARD TO Dr. RICHARD P. RIESZ

*

A Letter from Dr. Simon

*

Dear Fellow-Member of the American College Fraternity:

  Our dear Professor Riesz who contributed in no small, and critical,
measure to the building up of the American College of yonder years  has
been chosen to receive the prestigious INSA Teachers Award.
This is a truly *National* honor, for INSA is *the* Academy which
represents the Nation and its Science in *every* international forum.
I consider it as a great honor and recognition for the entire College as
an Institution, and not just for a specific Department thereof.

I am thankful to God that He gave me, as part of His Design,  and through
the opportunities I had at the College  both as a student  and as a member
of its yonder years Faculty, the privilege of playing  an ever-so-tiny
catalytic role in this great `missionary' getting this well-deserved
recognition at the highest National level, which has rightfully remained
his for the last forty years.


A special function to present this INSA Award to Dr Riesz has been
organized at and by my Institute at 3PM on Saturday the 12th April.  While
this is a public function, the attached PDF file is my personal  and
cordial invitation to everyone who has had something to do with the
American College and/or Dr Riesz at some stage or other.

INSA Awards are generically presented during the Annual Meeting of INSA
(which was this time in Lucknow, 26 - 28 December 2013). In view of the
multitude of dimensions that need be covered, the Awardee would get just
about 30 seconds on the dais. In view of Dr Riesz's extra distinction
INSA conceded to my suggestion that, as a very special case, the Award to
Dr Riesz be presented in a specially organized function at my Institute.
 It turned out that, for unexpected reasons, Prof HS Mani could not go to
Lucknow to receive his award, and since he lives in Chennai INSA has
suggested that his too be presented in the same function.

It is possible that some of you might not have had as much exposure
to Dr Riesz and his singular achievements as others. For this reason, I am
attaching the PDF file of the Nomination itself, to the
preparation of whose initial draft  both Prof V Srinivasan (of AC) and
Prof G Srinivasan (of RRI) made very significant contributions,
in the hope that a careful reading of the same would give you some feeling
for the quality and magnitude of his achievements.

Functions at my Institute are normally held on  week days. We have
organized this function over the week-end in the fond hope that the
Fraternity (alumni & well-wishers) would find it more convenient to make
it
to the function. Do come and experience what kind of a great human being,
a missionary-par-excellence, worked and walked in the blessed campus of
the American College of yonder years for thirty plus years!
 Dr Riesz will be delighted to see you at the function. I too will be
delighted.

Sincerely yours,

Rajiah Simon
SERB Distinguished Fellow &
Senior Professor
The Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Chennai 600 113
Email: simon@imsc.res.in
Phone (direct): 044 - 22543120


=========================================================

 NOMINATION FOR 

INSA TEACHERS AWARD 2013

 Richard P. Riesz

Nomination for INSA Teachers Award 2013
1. Name of the Nominee: RIESZ Richard Parrish
Surname First Name Middle Name
2. Date of Birth: 26 / 04 / 1928
dd mm yyyy
3. Nationality: Citizen of USA
4. Designation:
● Professor and Head of the Post Graduate Physics Department (19631988)
● The first Dean of Academic Affairs of the College (1978 81)
when the College
gained autonomous status in 1978.
● Chairman, Research & Development Committee of the College (19721981)
● Professor and Head, Department of Applied Science (19681993)
5. Institution: The American College (an Autonomous College affiliated to Madurai
Kamaraj University), Madurai, Tamilnadu
6. Address for Correspondence:
Dr. R. P. Riesz
1376 West Main Street, P.O Box 384
Tennessee TN 38578
Tel (O): NA
Tel (R): 001 931 277 5642
Mobile: NA
Email:
dickriesz@frontiernet.net
7. Details of Teaching Experience:
For a long time, Post Graduate education in Tamil Nadu was confined to Chennai
(Madras), and then Tiruchirapalli. It was extended to Madurai in 1960, with Madura
College becoming the first PG Centre. In 1963, Dr. R.P. Riesz came from the Bell
Telephone Laboratories in USA and founded the Post Graduate Physics Department
at American College. He was the Professor and Head of the PG Physics Department
from the year 1963 till his retirement in 1988. He taught a variety of subjects like
Classical Mechanics, Electromagnetism, Optics, Electronics etc.
His main interest and emphasis was always in Laboratory work (Practical work &
Projects).
Sl No. Topics / Subjects taught Institution Years taught
(yyyy to yyyy)
Level
(UG/PG)
1 Classical Mechanics, The American College 1963 1988
PG
2 Optics dodoPG
3 Electronics, digital & analog dodoPG
4 Fourier Optics do19721988
PG
5 Laboratory work do19631993
PG
8. Please provide as an attachment a brief writeup
(not exceeding 1000 words) which
in your opinion supports the Nominee’s eligibility for this award (highlight dedication to
teaching, motivational skills, evidence of innovative teaching methods/materials,
functioning as a role model and other qualities you wish to mention).
PLEASE SEE THE ATTACHED WRITEUP.
9. List of equipments designed and fabricated and/or papers published on education in
journals/magazines with state/national/international circulation.
The list is too long to be listed in its entirety. To mention a few:
● A glass high vacuum system, with rare gas handling facility.
● Many digital electronics modules for teaching the assembly of electronic
systems
● A system for obtaining holograms
● A digital lock
● A set up with a powerful electromagnet to study magnetic properties of
materials
● Computer interfacing of several experiments for fast data acquisition and
analysis.
● The use of HeNe
lasers for optics experiments.
The results of experiments and projects were made freely available to other
Institutions. Several of these experiments were published in International and
National Journals (see attached CV).
10. Where relevant, indicate how Nominee’s research has helped in his/her teaching.
Riesz was an active researcher at Bell Labs, working at the frontiers of
semiconductor physics. After coming to Madurai his main research interest
centered on the methodology of Physics Education. With his deep insight, and
innovation that was necessary working under great constraint in a college, he
was able to raise the standard of teaching to international standards.
Hundreds of his students, are currently working in different laboratories and
institutions all over the world, pursuing research at the cutting edge of
science. Several of them have earned high recognitions.
He brought the best practices of Bell Labs into his teaching. One significant
innovation was the introduction of ”Project Laboratory” for second year M.Sc.
Students, in which each student made a "Proposal" for conducting a new
experiment or constructing an instrument, then used the laboratories and
library to carry out the work, and finally make a professional Report to submit
for publication. This concept first
initiated by R.P. Riesz at American College has
now been adopted by several important institutions throughout India.
With modest facilities available in a government aided college like The
American College, he was able to guide experimental research work of one of
the junior colleagues in the department to earn his Ph.D degree using the
vacuum system which he designed.
Besides this, he guided the M.Phil project work of many teacher candidates of
other colleges in the University area.
11. List up to 5 significant text/reference books written along with reviews, if any:
No formal books were published. Dr. Riesz produced carefully prepared manuals of high
technical quality for internal use in respect of (1) Machineshop
practice, (2) Electronics
experiments, (3) Optics experiments, (4) Photography, (5) Vacuum system. In addition
several laboratory innovations were published in pedagogic and regular journals for a
larger audience (see attached CV).
12. List current positions of up to six former students of the Nominee (give names, level
and year of their study period, contact details including their emails and mobile
numbers).
● Prof. G. Baskaran (M.Sc. 19681970),
Institute of Mathematical Sciences,
Chennai baskaran@imsc.res.in, Bhatnagar Prize (1990), FNA, FASc. Mobile:
9940219203
● Prof. R. Simon (M.Sc. 19701972),
Institute of Mathematical Sciences,
Chennai simon@imsc.res.in Bhatnagar Prize (1993), FNA, FASc. Mobile:
9444111865
● Prof. R. Srianand (M.Sc. 198991),
IUCAA, Pune anand@iucaa.ernet.in, INSA
young scientist medal (1997), Bhatnagar Prize (2008), FASc. Mobile:
7798235857
● Prof. R. Sridharan (M.Sc. 19691971),
FASc, FNASc,
r_sridharan777@yahoo.co.in, formerly at PRL, then Director of Space
Physics Laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram. Now back at PRL as CSIR
Emeritus Professor. Mobile: 9429199824
● Prof. Champion Deivanayagam (M.Sc. 19861988),
Department of Vision
Sciences, University of Alabama, Burmingham, USA champy @uab.edu,
Mobile: 0012054104919
● Prof. Albert M. Thomas (M.Sc. 19761978),
Professor of Radiology and
Director of magnetic resonance spectroscopy, UCLA, LA, CA
AThomas@mednet.ucla.edu Mobile: 0013108251764
13. A brief note (not exceeding 100 words) highlighting other academic activities in
addition to regular duties, such as general/
popular articles / lectures on science,
organizing seminars / workshops, outreach activities etc.
Dr. Riesz was very involved with improving Physics Education in other
colleges in Tamilnadu and beyond. He organized:
● a UGC sponsored AllIndia
Summer Institute of Optical Physics (SWOP 70)
for College Physics teachers to introduce for the first time concepts of
Fourier Optics, and Matrix Methods in Geometrical Optics.
● a UGC sponsored AllIndia
Summer Institute in Semiconductor Electronics
and Electron Devices (SEED 73), to introduce in a major way semiconductor
electronics in laboratory work.
● He involved himself, PG students and teachers, to interact with High School
Students in the rural place Devakkottai in Tamilnadu as a weekend exercise
for several weeks, for years, to create an interest in Physics for students of
9th & 10th classes in two schools there. Recently Subbiah Arunachalam
(scientometrist) recalled vividly the passion with which Riesz pursued this
outreach mission.
● Founder and during the initial years President of the Physics Club of
Madurai involving all the University and College Physics Teachers in and
around Madurai.
14. Any recognition / honour at state / national level received by the Nominee for excellence
in teaching.
In recognition of his pioneering efforts to promote the teaching of modern
optics, Riesz was singled out for some significant recognitions by the Raman
Research Institute, founded by the Nobel Laureate Sir C.V. Raman:
● A Hilger Quartz Spectrograph, one of C.V Raman's prized possessions, and
a plate measuring equipment, were given on a permanent loan to Prof.
Riesz by the Raman Research Institute Trust. Characteristically, Riesz
adapted this historic spectrograph to modern needs by replacing the
photographic plate by an electronic detector array.
● To commemorate the Birth Centenary of Sir C V Raman in 1988, INSA and
the Indian Academy of Sciences jointly commissioned Dr G Venkataraman
to write a scientific biography of Raman. At Dr. Venkataraman's request,
Riesz recreated many of Raman’s classic experiments using LASER light.
Indeed, many of the photographs that appear in Venkataraman's
internationally acclaimed Journey into light were produced by Riesz.
● As part of the centenary celebrations, the Raman Research Institute invited
Prof. Riesz as a Visiting Professor during the centenary year.
● While the Science Academies jointly commissioned the biography, the
Raman Institute Trust decided that an Optics Kit that could be widely
distributed in the country would be a fitting tribute to CV Raman. Professor
Riesz was invited to design and produce the prototype of this kit. A
commercial firm specializing in science kits manufactured and marketed
this kit.
15. Attach latest CV (not more than 3 pages of A4 size paper) of the Nominee
(List of research publications should be restricted to 10 best papers only).
PLEASE SEE ATTACHED CV
Nominator’s Details
1. Name of the Nominator: SIMON RAJIAH
Surname First Name Middle Name
2. Designation: Senior Professor
3. Institution: The Institute of Mathematical Sciences
4. Address for Correspondence: The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, CIT Campus,
Tharamani, Chennai 600113.
Tel (O): 044 22543100
Tel (R): 044 24510280
Mobile: 9444111865
Email:
simon@imsc.res.in
5. In what capacity and for how long do you know the Nominee:
For forty years: as a student, then as a colleague, and now as an admirer of his mission.
DECLARATION
Information provided in the above nomination is true to the best of my knowledge.
Date: 29052013
Place: Chennai Signature and Seal of the Nominator
Writeup
in support of the nomination of Prof. RP Riesz (Annexure to # 8)
Dr. RP Riesz, fondly called RPR by students and colleagues, the founder of the PostGraduate
Physics Department (PGPD) of The American College, Madurai is likely to be unique among
those nominated for the INSA Teachers Award. Some of the things that make him unique are
listed below. To start with, RPR did not walk into an established department and start teaching.
He had to work very hard to establish the department from scratch in a remote part of India,
with very modest resources at his disposal. His vision was to design a purposeful rewarding
program that would suit the needs of the kind of students who are likely to come there to study,
and empower his students to get physics jobs in activities related to the skills they would have
acquired during their M.Sc. programme. There is wide consensus in Indiain
the Academia,
DRDO Labs, DAE establishments, ISRO, etc.that
RPR accomplished his goals with great
success. ``A neverending
sequence of well thoughtout
innovations''would
be a fairly
accurate first approximation description of RPR's approach to his vision and mission. Given
below is a summary of some components of his achievements:
● His first activity was to gather/equip the required teaching staff. This he did by
encouraging both the existing faculty of the undergraduate department and the very few
new faculty members he was allowed to recruit to undertake advanced study and
research in various institutes of higher learning, taking full advantage of the UGC FIP
program that was available.
● In parallel, he built up an enviable departmental library. He made the best use of the
various grants of UGC and other agencies. He also persuaded his friends in USA to
donate subscriptions for more that a dozen international journals. PGPD was one of
the very few college departments in India that could boast of having on its shelves
famous journals like the Physical Review, Reviews of Modern Physics, Bell System
Technical Journal, many journals of IRE (to become IEEE later), all journals of the
Optical Society of America (the last two through subsidised subscription as Member),
etc. He succeeded in shipping into the departmental library huge personal collections
of books from several prominent physicist friends of his, including his father Robert
Riesz.
● He established a Journal Club in Madurai which met regularly. Often, he himself
reviewed research articles for the benefit of the faculty and PG students. He also
encouraged the faculty and students to do the same. Thus, a new culture was
established.
● Improving the quality of laboratory (practical) work was his major concern and
preoccupation. The ‘experiments’ that used to be just crude and routine were replaced
with serious experiments to make accurate measurement of physical quantities (like
measurement of short lengths, short time durations, etc). The emphasis was on
accuracy, reproducibility, and experimentation as
a tool in learning. Mindless (so called) ‘experiments’ were replaced and the emphasis
was shifted to learning about methods of experimental physics. This thrust, and shift
in the paradigm, introduced by RPR was absolutely unique in south India. This, more
than anything else, established PGPD as a ``Brand”.
● With generous contributions from Bell Labs and friends he built a stateoftheart
machineshop
comparable to the best in the country. He made workshop practice
compulsory for students. This, again, was a pioneering step way back in the early
1960s. Students were `encouraged' to fabricate parts of equipment required for their
projects.
● Another novel initiative was “entropy reduction” as a part of the laboratory work. Students
were encouraged to repair and check the calibration of instruments and equipments they
use in their laboratory. No `attender' stood between the students and the supply. If a
student broke a gadget or found one to be not functioning, she should try and fix it; and
if she did not succeed, she should report the same in a logbook
kept for that purpose.
There was no other rule in the lab! When the nominator was a student of PGPD, on
one occasion RPR walked into the lab to measure something and found the gadget he
needed nonfunctional.
We heard him say (think aloud): I hope I am the first one to notice
this!. Breaking something (however expensive be it) was never an offence; failure to
record in the log was. `Breakage fine’ was unheard of in PGPD
● Use of the departmental library was a vital component of life at PGPD. The PGPD
library was open to the students 24 hours, all days of the week, and they could also issue
books any time of the day or night simply by making entry in a logbook
kept for the
purpose, and return the next working day. Students could be regularly found working in
the library even during the vee hours of the night. When the nominator was in RPR's
Faculty, the issue of students sleeping in the Library once came up, and RPR's
lighthearted
response was: `No mosquito nets please!' The Students ran monthly
inventory on a specific Saturday of the month. And the library never lost books! Similar
was the case with the Labs as well.
● The lecture courses emphasised deeper understanding of concepts and concentrated on
problemsolving
abilities as against reproduction of `derivations'. Abolishing the then
existing `write an essay on ...' mode of questions, RPR fought his way through with
the university to introduce an examination pattern wherein only 40% of the question
paper could be on bookwork
or derivations. Probing brainteasers,
whose answer could
be as short as a word and typically a sentence, constituted 20%, and the other 40% was
problemsolving.
The `letter' of this aspect seems to have by now trickled down to most
institutions in the South.
● RPR introduced a new type of practical examination in which the students were given
a physical problem or situation and were expected to design experimental and
measurement techniques to achieve the desired end, and then implement the design in
the laboratory. Different students would do different things in answer to the same
question.
● A unique course he designed and taught was entitled “Basic Skills in Physics Learning”.
This was designed to improve learning skills. The course was a great success and
became enormously popular [Physics Today Vol. 42, 146 (1988)].
● The American College became an autonomous Institution in the year 1978. Even before
that RPR, through considerable effort, was able to get functional autonomy from the
University for PGPD to periodically update the curriculum. He utilized this
quasiautonomy
to introduce a set of courses on Applied Optics, which included
Fourier Optics. With this step, the Optics program in the department became a unique
one in the country. On the practical side, this training in contemporary optics, along with
their training in electronics, made American College students much sought after by the
research laboratories of the country.
● The Tuesday Seminar is bound to be permanently etched in the memory of everyone to
have passed through PGPD, and was taken very very seriously. Every student was
required at least one full (hour long) professional seminar presentation. The entire PGPD
would be there. RPR was always there without fail, and at his probing best. Preparation
by a student was for weeks, and in some cases for months. It was real `baptism by the
fire’. And a defining moment in the student's life.
● PRP’s lectures were enviably inspiring, and his boardwork
has no parallel that I know of.
For forty years I have been struggling to imitate this ideal, and the struggle continues.
● Several famous physicists, including several Nobel laureates, visited as RPR’s
personal guests and interacted with the students for varied time durations.
● Frequent inhouse
retraining (``Faculty Retreats'') was another feature of RPR's
department. The Faculty went on camp for about 8 to 10 days to some nice place like
Kodaikanal. Sometimes the Retreat was on campus. During these retreats, in all of
which RPR participated intensely, an indepth
study of a specific area of advanced
physics would be undertaken. For instance, during the summer of 1972 Prof PM
Mathews gave an intense fourweek
long full course of lecturescumdiscussions
on
Quantum Mechanics & Elementary Quantum Field Theory. RPR's PGPD can take pride
in the fact that this oncampus
`retreat' was a precursor to the highly acclaimed
Textbook on Quantum Mechanics by PM Mathews and K Venkatesan published in
1976. On occasions, these retreats were used to update the curriculum, and well as to
brainstorm about possible new courses. This was another hallmark of PGPD.
● RPR recognized that the facilities of PGPD (laboratories, workshop, darkrooms, Faculty,
and Students) could also be made available for “consultancy work” for outside
Companies and Institutions. With this in mind, he started a Department of Applied
Science (DAS), which undertook projects and services for profit, by the faculty and also
the students trained in PGPD. With no financial grant from the College, or Government,
or any other agency, the selfsustaining
DAS has been extremely successful in
fabrication of instruments for the industry as well as for academic departments and
hospitals, and also repairing and servicing hightech
electronic and other instruments. In
this way, the students and employees became socially ‘relevant’ to the community at
large, and students were enabled to be absorbed into the society as valuable members.
CMC & CMCHospital,
Vellore, for instance, was a major benefactor and beneficiary of
DAS. As his colleague, I have often heard RPR confidently telling young persons looking
for employment: If you want a `post' I have none to offer, but if you can do a job, I
can find one for you in DAS. And he meant it! Always!! This is a profound statement,
for it captures on the one hand the success of DAS as an innovation. On the other, it
captures RPR's philosophy for PGPD: to equip the students with real skills rather than
simply paper qualification. RPR considered DAS as an important `outreach’ programme
and has presented, on invitation, a writeup
on this enormously successful innovation
[Doing Applied Science in a College, Eur. Jour. Phys. Vol.4, 34 (1983)].
● In another very significant innovation and outreach to put the PGPD instruments to fuller
socially relevant use, RPR started a programme called "Jivana Jyoti", which was a
teaching effort to empower physically challenged young persons in use of computers.
This effort has been enormously effective and has trained to date hundreds of
young persons, who have been absorbed into the workforce, despite the usual
negative feelings towards physicallychallenged
persons.
http://www.emagister.in/jivana_jyoti_program_coursesec2670675.
htm
http://www.hindu.com/2009/09/10/stories/2009091054570500.htm.
The list of farsighted
initiatives by RPR is almost endless! RPR gave up a very successful and
promising research career at one of the world’s most famous labs and came to Madurai as a
young man at the prime of his life. He devoted the next thirty years to improving physics
education in India. The partial list given above should give a feeling for his foresight, commitment
and sustained dedication to this cause.
PGPD had no secretary (typist). Even though RPR was quite adept at typing, Joyce should have
realized that that would not be an efficient use of his energy. So this mother of three children
would, on a regular basis, bicycle to PGPD at all kinds of time, and type out for hours RPR’s
communications from a taperecorder.
A former female student of PGPD once told this
nominator that in her own married life later, she found this a great lesson and inspiration as to
how wife and husband could play for the same team.
Two traits made RPR’s mission so very effective. First, he moulded PGPD into a grand
family. The frequent parties which Joyce & RPR threw at their residence for the nearly
fiftystrong
PGPD were not only times of great food, fun, and games, but also helped to
strengthen this very bond. Students looked at Joyce as a mother away from home. Second,
RPR believed in leading from the front, by example and inspiration, as against driving from
the back through executive orders. He would be in office, before eight and work till ten in the night
(or even later), except for brief periods when he would bicycle home for meals. It was
impossible for the students and faculty not to copy. The Riesz’s were infectious rolemodels
and ideals, not just in academics, but in other dimensions of life as well.
RPR was a Missionary par excellence, in the true sense of that word; PGPD was his Mission
Field, and bringing purpose into Physics Education was his gospel. G. N. Ramachandran,
M. K. Vainu Bappu, S. Ramaseshan, Babulal Saraf, V. Radhakrishnan, G. Venkatraman, N.
Kumar, G. Srinivasan, Rajaram Nityananda, and others have talked about the vision, mission,
and achievement of RPR in glorious terms on various occasions. INSA has done well to have
now an instrument by which the unparalleled services of such exceptional people could be put
on record.
2013 is the Golden Jubilee year of RPR’s mission, PGPD. At least hundred members of the
PGPD family are scattered throughout the United States, and many of them plan to gather in
Washington, DC on July 13th to celebrate the Golden Jubilee in the company of Joyce &
RPR who moulded them into what they are, most of them having originated from poor and rural
backgrounds. This year is thus particularly appropriate to recognise RPR’s unique
achievements.
CV of Richard Parrish Riesz (Annexure to # 15)
RICHARD PARRISH RIESZ (fondly called RPR by students and colleagues) was born in New York City
on April 26, 1928, the first son of Alice and Robert Riesz, a physicist of no small repute. He grew up
and attended schools in Mount Vernon NY and Chatham NJ, obtained a BA (cum laude) degree in
Physics and Mathematics from Drew University in Madison NJ (1949) and a Ph.D. in Physics from the
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland (1954).In 1949 he married Joyce Gederberg, and they
lived in Baltimore MD during his graduate studies.
He joined the Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1954 as Member of the Technical Staff and worked
in solid-state device research until 1962. During that period they lived in Berkeley Heights NJ, and
their three children (Matthew, Christina, Martha) were born. He and his family were active in the
Stanley Congregational Church UCC of Chatham NJ.
In 1962 he and his wife accepted appointments as Missionaries of the ABCFM (soon to become the
United Church Board for Foreign Missions) and moved to Madurai, a city in South India where he
undertook the work of starting a Graduate School of Physics in The American College, an Indian
College with mission antecedents. During the next 30 years he led this Department, started and
nurtured the Department of Applied Science (a self-sustaining multi-disciplinary enterprise with no
financial grant from the Government, or the College, or any other agency); was responsible for the
initiative that led to the Autonomy of the College (the first such College in Tamil Nadu); served as
the first Dean of Academic Affairs of the (Autonomous) American College; and initiated and nurtured
at the American College “Jivana Jyoti”, a special program for teaching computer skills to physically
challenged young persons.
He had a close collaboration with the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore for several years. He
was a founding member and Vice-President of the Optical Society of India, and a Member and Chair
of the Governing Council of the Kodaikanal International School.
During two “furloughs from India” he enjoyed one-year appointments as Member of the Technical
Staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories. During each of two other furloughs he was a Visiting
Professor at the Claremont College, Claremont, California.
Both he (and his wife) became adept at the Tamil language and the music of South India, to the
extent of giving Carnatic Music performances himself. They enjoyed many sessions and concerts of
Carnatic Music in Madurai and elsewhere.
In 1993 they left India and retired to Pleasant Hill TN where they joined the Uplands Retirement
Village. In retirement he continued his interactions with the American College and India. Because of
his enduring passion for the College and Madurai, he led at least five “SIP” (South India Pilgrimage)
trips to Madurai, and thus introduced more than 100 persons to the life and culture of South India. He
also became a Trustee and later President of the American College Endowment Trust Fund, and
visited India in 2008 for the celebration of the 125th Anniversary of the American College.
He entered into the life of Pleasant Hill, Tennesse, first as a Member of the Pleasant Hill
Community Church (UCC) where he continues to serve on a number of Committees. He was elected
as a Member of the Pleasant Hill Town Council, and selected as Vice-Mayor for two years. After
leaving the Council he was the Chairman of an active Planning Commission which introduced modern
Town Planning instruments.
He and his wife continue to enjoy many contacts with India, and visitors from the College and other
dear friends from their 30 years of service in India. Of course, family visitors continue to be
cherished.
Grandchildren are:
From daughter Martha Forlenza (Gerald): Michael, and Anthony Forlenza (North Canton, OH)
From daughter Christina Whiteway (Tom): Stephen and Alexa Whiteway (Chambersburg, PA)
From son Matthew Riesz (Marita): Christopher and Timothy Riesz (Matawan, NJ)
Current contacts (since January 2011)
1376 West Main Street, P.O. Box 384
Pleasant Hill TN 38578
Phone: 931-277-5642
e-mail: dickriesz@frontiernet.net
RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS:
1. R Riesz and GH Dieke: The Analysis and Purification of Rare Gases by Means of Electric Discharges,
Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 25 , No.2, 196 (1954).
2. GL Pearson and RP Riesz: High‐Speed Switching Diodes from Plastically Deformed Germanium
Journal of Applied Physics, Volume: 30 , Issue: 3, 311 (1959).
3. RP Riesz and LV Sharp: Some properties of vacuum-evaporated thin films of germanium,
Electron Devices, (IRE Transactions on), Volume: 8 , Issue: 5, 430 (1961).
4. RP Riesz and CG Bjorling: Sample Preparation for Transmission Electron Microscopy of Germanium,
Review of Scientific Instruments, Volume: 32 , Issue: 8, 889(1961).
5. RP Riesz: High Speed Semiconductor Photodiodes, Review of Scientific Instruments, Volume: 33,
Issue: 9, 994 (1962).
6. RP Riesz and MR Biazzo: Gigahertz Optical Modulation, Applied Optics, Vol. 8, Issue 7, 1393 (1969).
7. RP Riesz: Optical interaction with high-field domain nucleation in GaAs, Electron Devices, (IEEE
Transactions on), Volume: 17 , Issue: 1, 81 (1970).
8. G Balasubramanian and RP Riesz: Digital thickness monitor using only one crystal oscillator
Review of Scientific Instruments, Volume: 52 , Issue: 5, 746 (1981).
9. RP Riesz and R Simon: Reflection of a Gaussian beam from a dielectric slab, Journal of the Optical
Society of America A, Vol. 2, Issue 11, 1809 (1985).
10. RP Riesz: High Speed Rectifier, US Patent # 2,959,505 (1960);
RP Riesz: Formation of p-n Junctions in p-type Semiconductors,
US Patent # 2,992,471 (1961);
BG King and RP Riesz, Gunn Effect Driver for Optical Modulators,
US Patent # 3,573,465 (1971).
OTHER PUBLICATIONS:
1. RP Riesz: Doing Applied Science in a College, Eur. J. Phys. Volume 4, 34 (1983).[Here RPR describes,
on invitation, his enormously successful innovation, the Department of Applied Science (DAS).]
2. RP Riesz and V Srinivasan: Teaching Students How to Learn Physics, Physics Today Vol. 42, 146
(1989). [Describes the success of the innovative course Basic Skills in physics Learning.
3. RP Riesz: A New Programme of M.Sc. Physics Studies at The American College, Madurai,Physics
Education Vol. 1 No. 2 (1984). [Describes, for the benefit of others, the enormously successful
M.Sc.
programme of RPR.]
4. RP Riesz: An Optics Course for Non-Science Students, Using Take-Home Apparatus, Journal of Optics
Vol.12, No. 2 (1983). [Describes a very successful {\Optics Course for Poets}.]
5. RP Riesz and AR Venkataraman: Implementation of College Autonomy, New Frontiers in Education,
Vol. 10, No. 1, 28 (1980). [Details the meticulous preparation for College Autonomy.]
6. RP Riesz: Dimensions of the teaching-learning process at the Tertiary level of education -
Implications
for Autonomous Colleges, The Educational Review, Vol. 94, No. 11, 184 (1988). [Assessment of the
actual experience of implementing College Autonomy.]
7. R Simon and RP Riesz: Large amplitude simple pendulum: A Fourier analysis, American Journal of
Physics, Volume 47, Issue 10, 898 (1979).
8. J J Prabhakaran, G Balasubramaniam, and RP Riesz: A convenient Fizeau Interferometer for Thin-Film
Thickness measurement, CSIO Communications Vol. 9, No. 1 (1982).
9. RP Riesz: A Simple Lens holder for Introductory Optics Laboratories}, Journal of Optics Vol.12, No. 4
(1983).
10. RP Riesz: An Optics Course for Non-Science Students, Using Take-Home Apparatus}, Journal of
Optics Vol.12, No. 2 (1983).
11. RP Riesz and R Simon: Splitting of a Gaussian Beam on Reflection from a Dielectric Slab --
Experimental, Journal of Optics Vol.14, No. 1 (1985).