Victor H. Regener: A Memoir

Victor H. Regener was born in Berlin, Germany, on August 25, 1913. His father, Erich Regener, was a Professor of Physics at Stuttgart University in the early days after the discovery of cosmic radiation. Professor Erich Regener operated an ionization chamber detector at various depths down to 235 meters below the surface of Bodensee (Lake Konstanz). He showed that the intensity of the radiation continued to decrease with increasing depth below the surface of the lake. Working with him was his teenaged son, Victor. Regener and his group also measured cosmic ray intensity as a function of atmospheric depth using balloon-borne electroscopes and, together, he and his son made measurements of ozone high in the atmosphere.

Victor Regener received his doctoral degree in Engineering Physics from the Institute of Technology, in Stuttgart, in 1938. Victor's mother was part Jewish, and so with the Nazi influence on the rise in Germany he immediately moved to Padua, Italy, to work with the famous cosmic ray physicist Bruno Rossi for two years. After those two years he moved to the University of Chicago to work with the renowned American physicist Arthur H. Compton, and in 1946 he joined the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of New Mexico as an associate professor of physics. He served as Department Chair from 1947-57, and again from 1962-79. In 1960, he was the first faculty scholar to deliver the Annual UNM Research Lecture, one of the highest honors that the University of New Mexico bestows on its colleagues.

His research demonstrated tremendous breadth of interests. He constructed cosmic ray telescopes to study the cosmic ray muon component, and located one in a mine on Mount Chacaltaya at an elevation of 17,400 feet in the Bolivian Andes, one in Embudo Cave in the Sandias, and one in a mine in Socorro, New Mexico. He built Capilla Peak Astronomical Observatory in the Manzano Mountains of New Mexico, where he conducted astronomical and solar observations, studied zodiacal light (light scattered from dust in space, observable near sunrise and sunset), and a secondary brightening called "gegenschein" (German for 'opposite light') on the opposite side of the sky from the sun. Victor also made observations of atmospheric ozone, both at the Earth's surface and using detectors flown from balloons. He built an instrument to measure solar ultra-violet radiation in multiple wavelength ranges; it was flown on the OGO (Orbiting Geophysical Observatory) Satellite. He also conducted research on pulsars using data obtained from the Capilla Peak Observatory.

In the old European tradition learned from his father, Victor designed each part of every experiment and built equipment from scratch in the department's glass-blowing shop and in the machine shop. He was a very competent machinist, and a genius at laying out printed circuits for the electronics that went with his various experiments. Even in the early days of instruments to be carried into space on satellites, Victor's entire OGO package was designed, built, and tested within the department, and was flown successfully.

Victor Regener designed the addition to the original Physics & Astronomy building, which came into use in 1965. He also designed the PandA lecture and lab building that was ultimately named Regener Hall in tribute to him. It is a marvelous teaching facility, reflecting the fact that Victor was a superb teacher. The building has high doorways that allow one to bring in the wonderful large pieces of demonstration equipment (also designed and built under Victor's direction) making it a joy to teach in the 300-seat facility. On the roof is a heliostat that beams sunlight into an optical system of Victor's design which allows a large image of the sun to be projected onto a screen in the lecture hall. As days go by, students can observe sunspots and note the 27-day rotation period of the sun.

As the Department Chair, Victor was very protective of faculty members, supporting them through their promotions and protecting them from the ravages of the University administration. There were those in administration who found him to be difficult to deal with, but he usually got his way when it came to safeguarding the best interests of the PandA faculty and the department.

Victor had many graduate students over the years, and they each received a splendid education that stood them in good stead in later years. Some of his graduate students complained that Vic worked them too hard, but no one in the whole department worked harder than Victor. Those evenings when I came in to work, if Vic was not off observing at Capilla Peak most of the night he was working in his office or lab. When I left, Vic's blue Olds Toronado was usually still parked there.

When Victor retired in 1979, he was awarded the UNM Regents' Meritorious Service Medal. The dedication on the medal was written by author Tony Hillerman, who was then a part of the UNM community; it reads:

As a scientist, Victor Regener brought this University international respect.
       As a brilliant teacher, he endowed a legion of his students with a love of
       the demanding discipline of physics. As a leader of faculty thought, he
       improved a thousand faculty debates with his keen intelligence, his
       humanism, and his good-natured wit. For 33 years, he has given this
       community a model of what a university professor should be.

The medal is now on display in the main lobby of the Physics & Astronomy building.

Vic built himself a large lab out on Jefferson after he retired from UNM. He installed his own machine shop, and built a very complex mechanical and optical system which he used to prepare printed circuit boards for various customers in town. He was assisted by his son, Eric, who used his computer skills to generate data that were a necessary part of the system. I remember the evenings that Vic, Richard St. John, and I spent out there discussing further analysis of our cosmic ray data and preparing papers for publications. The last cosmic ray paper I ever wrote was a tribute to Victor and the three generations of Regeners who were involved in his work.

I actually met Vic's wife Birgit a year before I met Victor. I was a graduate student from Alberta, carrying out high-altitude, high energy cosmic ray experiments at 14,000 feet at the top of Mt. Evans, in Colorado. There was a road going all the way to the top, and we would get a lot of tourists. This lady asked me what I was doing, and I explained cosmic rays to her. She said, "My husband is Victor Regener, and he studies cosmic rays in New Mexico." I admitted that I had never heard of him, and I didn't know much about New Mexico either. About a year later, I was back on Mt. Evans - that time at 10,000 feet at Echo Lake - finishing my experiment, writing my dissertation, and looking for work. I wrote to the chairmen of all of the universities in the Rocky Mountain region, and received three positive responses: one (unsolicited) from MIT...they were anxious to send me to Bolivia...one from the University of Denver, and a message from a 'Victor Regener' who asked if I could meet him at Denver's Stapleton Airport. We met and we talked about mountains we liked and about skiing. He then bought me a ticket to Albuquerque and told me to fly down the next week to give a talk. He said, "Bring plenty of color slides of the Canadian Rockies and Mt. Evans, and talk about your research." I met the faculty for lunch at Hoyt's Dinner Bell, gave my talk, met the Dean, and went back to Colorado with an offer to be an assistant professor in my pocket. The rest is history.

Vic and I hit it off very well from the beginning. He had two cosmic ray telescopes already in operation and in their first year of producing data. He had so many other irons in the fire that he wanted me to work on the data and help use up some of the NSF grant he already had. What serendipitous timing for me! He also eased me gradually into university-level teaching, and when I found what wonderful demonstrations were available, it helped bring out the showman in me (not a difficult extraction)!

I continued to interact with Victor after he retired. He, Richard St. John, and I wrote a paper together on our cosmic ray research. When Vic came back from his many trips to Switzerland, we would sit and look at his photos and reminisce. As an undergraduate, I had hiked and climbed in Switzerland, and we were both particularly fond of the mountains around Zermat. We had talked about the two of us touring on skis across the high level route from Chamonix to Zermat, but it never came to pass. We did ski together at Taos, and Vic knew Ernie Blake, the founder of the ski area, very well; Ernie Blake was Swiss.

In the past few years we would go to lunch from time to time. At first, he insisted on driving, which scared me because his driving abilities had deteriorated quite a bit. The next time, I suggested we take my car because it was more comfortable, and he acquiesced. But he still insisted on paying for lunch.

Vic was very competitive. Whenever we played word games, which I enjoyed, he usually won. He told me how he had played chess with Enrico Fermi and had beaten him...he was very proud of that. The U.S. Postal Service put out a stamp with Fermi's likeness on it; Vic had a sheet of them and gave me one he signed along the border. I still keep that stamp in my office. When he was still at UNM, Victor was able to attract world-class physicists like Hans Bethe, Sam Goudschmidt, and Sydney Chapman who came to our department to lecture and interact with our faculty.

Although English was not his first language, and I considered myself to be reasonably eloquent and a good writer, whenever I would do the first draft of one of our papers, Victor would go over it and he always made changes that made it more coherent. When he was finished, his secretary Virginia Roy would have to type it all from scratch again - there were no word processors in those days.

For forty years, Vic was my colleague, my mentor, and my friend. In all that time, I cannot recall us ever having had a serious argument. He is greatly missed.

Derek B. Swinson
Professor of Physics, Emeritus
January 24, 2006