Department News & Events

Forty Years in Physics

On November 12, 2008, the Department of Physics held a gala celebration to mark "Forty Years in Physics" by three of our faculty members - professors Di Bartolo, Goldsmith and Uritam.

Baldassare (Rino) Di Bartolo was born in Italy, Sicily. He received his first degree, Dottore Ingegnere in Industrial Engineering, at the University of Palermo, Italy in 1950. In 1956, he received a Fulbright grant and a scholarship from MIT, where he worked as a member of the "Foreign Student Summer Project". Rino became a visiting fellow at the Department of Physics and a staff member of the Laboratory for Insulation Research of MIT. While working in the lab, he entered the graduate program and received his PhD from MIT in 1964. In 1968, he joined Boston College. He married his wife, Rita, also in 1968. Their two sons – a physicist and a biologist – have inherited their father’s passion for science. During his 40 years in the Department of Physics at Boston College, Rino has enjoyed the friendship and fellowship of many fine colleagues and has taught many grateful students. Rino Di Bartolo has written 6 books, edited 18 books and has more than a hundred journal publications. Along with his teaching and research fellowship at BC, Rino Di Bartolo is proud to be the Director of the International School of Spectroscopy which organizes spectroscopy-related courses every summer at the Ettore Majorana Center in Erice, Sicily.

George Goldsmith, a native of Massachusetts, built his first “laboratory” in the attic of his home with his friends, working there on radio transmitters and audio amplifiers.  George got his bachelor degree in Chemistry from the University of Vermont., working as analytical chemist following graduation. Later, George enlisted in the U.S. Navy and trained as a radar technician. While attending electronic school, George married his wife, Sonia, on the naval base. During his graduate studies in Purdue and while doing research at RCA’s David Sarnof Research Center in Princeton, George made the switch from Chemistry to Physics. The Goldsmith family – his wife and their four children, two daughters and two sons – have also enjoyed some international  experience together when George was travelling and working abroad.  In 1968, George Goldsmith joined the faculty of Boston College. Since coming to BC, he has taught courses in undergraduate laboratories, photography, optics, and nuclear science. As a member of the university community, he has served on numerous committees both in the department and at the college level.  During his years at BC, George not only taught but touched so many lives of colleagues, students and friends.