Class News

Wole Odundun '64 on "Science on the Edge"

Letter to the Editor of the Yale Alumni Magazine
by Wole Odundun '64
April 2000

It was a sheer delight reading Bruce Fellman's informative article, "The Circuits of the Future" (Nov.). The reported achievements of Yale engineers and applied physicists give laudable credence to President Levin's philosophy of "selective excellence" as a guiding principle in the development of the University. Prior to the above research and development renaissance, Yale graduates (especially in the first three quarters of the last century) won kudos in the sciences and engineering. This can be illustrated by the achievements of two Yale College graduates: the Nobel Laureate, Professor Murray Gell-Mann, one of the greatest physicists of the second half of the 20th century, who was the co-originator of the Quark Model (in which quarks constitute the elementary particles, which, in turn, constitute matter); and the distinguished mathematician, Professor Saunders MacLane, who, together with his collaborator, Professor Samuel Eilenberg, laid the foundations of the theory of categories and functors in 1945. Clearly, this tradition of excellence should be continued, especially now that Yale is preparing for the tercentennial celebrations.

Wolé Odündün '64
oodundun@yahoo.com
Lesotho, Africa