Featured Friend: Margaret Gordon
Marge received her degrees in psychology at CSU Los Angeles, and worked for the County of Santa Barbara in healthcare services and prevention for 15 years. She has always had a keen interest in science, and has been involved with it for much of her life. Her first husband worked on instrumenting the Atlas Missile at Convair, and went on to work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and her second husband Robert “Bob” Meghreblian worked for the JPL as a deputy lab director.
What inspires you?
“My personal feelings about science started out in 1949 when I took a biology class from a Catholic priest (of all things!), and first learned about evolution. It has been something that has carried me in wonder and awe all these years. No matter what you look at in science, you see some aspect of it, and that is something I love about KITP – that you’ve got physics, astronomy, multi-disciplinary biological research all happening here.
I am inspired by how evolutions manifests itself in almost every aspect of science. We know what evolution is, we have consciousness of ourselves, and we are in the process, I think, of a really interesting attempt to grasp the meaning of that. Is there meaning or significance to it? Are we just random? And if we’re just stupid good luck, what do we do about it?”
How did you learn about Friends of KITP?
“I was attending an event for work at the University. I was sitting next to someone and she was talking about what was then the ITP. And I said, ‘Oh, physics is my husband’s background! He would be interested in this.’ I gave her what must have been my email (it was a long time ago), and asked her to let us know, because I knew Bob would be interested in this. I suppose that must have been how it happened.
Bob didn’t involve himself very much in the science community – I was surprised by that! I think he didn’t want to be involved in doing the same thing that he had done when he worked.
After he retired, he was a renaissance man. He got very interested in painting, took classes, and did a lot of oil paintings. And he was interested in Montecito social issues and he got involved in urban planning on the Planning Commission. He was interested in a lot of different things.
But he loved to come to ITP now KITP, because he could keep his finger on the pulse of what was going on in science.”
What has been the most impactful part of being a Friend of KITP?
“To be part of something that I believe is extremely important and I especially enjoy the social part of meeting other community members interested in science. We have got to have a greater understanding of science, especially those of us who don’t have a formal education in it. It’s amazing opportunity to sink your teeth into something, and to understand the value of it.
It is important if we’re going to decide what we’re going to do about evolution! It seems to me that this question has been dumped into our hands, to put it bluntly. What is the meaning of it? Is there any meaning of it? And what are we going to do about it?
The KITP has been a really important aspect of the University in terms of community outreach—to bring people together and give them the opportunity to get better educated in science, and understand it better. Pushing and advocating for the value of rationality and the scientific method – everything you see at KITP is that. I have to admit, I don’t always understand every part of the science, but there’s always something in it that moves me along a little ways in my understanding. And the fact that it has become multi-disciplinary is huge, because my degrees are in psychology, and I of course have an interest in biology as well.”
What is the future of Friends, in your opinion?
“To keep doing what it’s doing! Bringing great people together in an interdisciplinary way. And to keep educating people about what we are doing, what we are finding out, and how it is being done.
Every one of the Chalk Talks or Public Lectures is an education in how scientists are trying to figure something out. Having come from the social sciences, there is a hope that somehow that scientific method will rub off and help to solve some of our political and social problems based on asking what works, how to solve problems, and how verify that something is actually working.
The great hope as far as the direction of evolution, if there is one, is that your environment molds you, which is a very interesting aspect. And with social issues, you can begin to see people gradually take on solutions to these issues.”
What is one surprising or fun fact that other friends may not know?
“How long I’ve lived, and what I’ve seen! I’m 85 years old, and when I watch the field of science – the solution of DNA, the sequencing of the genome, the ways that we can see out into the universe, the accumulation of data that is possible with a computer now, the many ways that people are beginning to use it as a way to figure out what’s going on – there has just been so much that has happened in my lifetime, and I suppose I have been on the fringes of most of these things.
My friends may be surprised that I’m as interested in science that I am! It is very exciting, and it has made my life so much richer. You begin to think in philosophical terms: ‘the present anchored in the past, and pulled by the future.’ that’s a great way to think about it. It has been a very nice, long ride.”
Apart from attending Friends of KITP events, Marge is enjoying spending time with her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchild, and playing tennis regularly.