Materials are arranged in the order created during the interview process with the first file containing notes and correspondence created before, during, and after the interview.
Accession No. PA.2001.0021: Nathaniel C. Gerson, 2001 October
[identification of item], Nathaniel C. Gerson Oral History, SPEC.PA.56.0101, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Ohio State University
Contains audiocassettes.
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Processed by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2020 December; finding aid written by: Audrey Wimbiscus, ADA students, 2021 July
Nathaniel C. Gerson (1915-2002) was a physicist and a member of several committees that helped plan the International Geophysical Year (IGY) (1957-1958). From 1938-1946, Gerson worked at the United States Weather Bureau as a meteorological observer in Boston, Massachusetts. During his time with the Weather Bureau, Gerson was assigned to work with radiosonde balloons at the Hurricane Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico. While in Puerto Rico, he earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Puerto Rico. In 1946, Gerson started working as a physicist for the United States Army-Air Force. There, he worked at Watson Laboratories with radar and navigation systems. Gerson also worked on a low frequency, long-wave navigational system for the then called Operation MUSCALF, later called Project Beatles. During this time, Gerson went north of the Arctic Circle as well as the sub-arctic region where he calibrated and analyzed results at the ground stations, worked on a long-range navigational system (LORAN-C), and studied low frequency (LF) noise intensities. At the same time, he earned his master’s degree in physics from New York University, after which he was promoted to head of the Propagation Laboratory at the Watson Laboratory. In 1947, Gerson returned to Boston to oversee the Air Force’s Ionospheric Physics Laboratory that developed a program for photographic balloons. He worked with a German physicist on the ionization of oxygen on Earth, and polar ice caps being affected by the locations of the magnetic lines of force. His research was used to create the first flying laboratory, and in 1957, he was selected to be chairman of the first two Antarctic committees for the IGY. From the mid-1950s until just before his death in 2002, Gerson worked for the National Security Agency.
The Nathaniel C. Gerson Oral History, dated 1998 and 2001-2002, contains notes, correspondence, and transcripts of the interview between Gerson and Brian Shoemaker of the American Polar Society conducted on October 24, 2001. This interview was a part of a series of polar oral histories sponsored by the American Polar Society and Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Major topics of the interview include the development of radiosonde balloons, Gershon’s time in the Arctic Circle with Operation MUSCALF, Gerson’s thesis about particle ionization on ice caps, and proceedings of the meetings for the first two Antarctic committees for the International Geophysical Year.
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