A Census of My Careers
After a first career in academic research during which I was awarded a doctorate in astronomy by Harvard University, I switched to a second career in software systems engineering with Bell Labs (first when it was part of AT&T and continuing after the spin-off of Lucent Technologies). That career ended in 2002 with the dot-com bust and telecom meltdown, during which the job market vaporized and a nuclear winter followed.
This led to an effort to consider what else I could do, and, more importantly, which of those things could I get paid to do? This led to establishing a third career as a professional, freelance translator. (The status and success of this career can be seen on its website.)
A Search for an Interesting Side-Project
One of the distressing realities of freelance work is the unpredictable switch between frenetic feeding frenzy and frustrating famine. In the spring of 2014, during one such famine, I started to look for stimulating intellectual activity to fill the time until the next feeding frenzy hit. I immediately focused my search on potential projects that could make a connection back to my academic career when I had once been an astronomer and mathematical physicist.
In fairly short order, I had a few ideas for projects involving dynamics or stability of rotating astrophysical fluids. I talked to some people. I tried to assess the effort and resources that might be needed. While this route seemed plausible, it didn’t grab hold of my interest and hang on.
At the same time, my long-standing interest in Henri Poincaré’s work resurfaced. I was very interested in carefully understanding certain parts of Poincaré’s work. What better way to do that than by digging in and translating it?
As paying translation work flowed in, I translated patents and documents for clinical trials and as that work ebbed, I went back to translating mathematical physics. In that way, I got 2 things that really interested me: stimulating intellectual activity, and close, detailed study of the work of a renowned mathematical physicist.
Filling in the slow periods carried me though a first book that was entirely translation.
The Side-Project Develops into a Fourth Career
One book could be considered a side project, but soon after submitting it to the publisher I started considering further translation of Henri Poincaré’s work in physics and even research in the history of physics related to Poincaré. This consideration led to a queue of viable projects and active work. As that work progressed and the time I had committed to it grew, it became clear to me that this was a full-fledged career in the history of physics: my fourth career.
And that fourth career continues to grow. In fact, the career in the history of physics is now only grudgingly coexisting with the translation career. The time is recognizably approaching when the newer one will replace the older.
Publications
I translated Sur le problème des trois corps et les équations de dynamique by Henri Poincaré and it was published in 2017 by Springer, catalog entry.
My second book, Henri Poincaré: Electrons to Special Relativity, is part translation of key papers by Poincaré about electrodynamics of charged particles, and part original writing about the discovery of the electron and the consequent need for a particle-based theory of electrodynamics. SpringerNature published this book in August 2020, catalog entry.
I am now actively researching and writing a third book. The working title is The First Solvay Conference: A Community Faces Quantum Theory; it is under contract with SpringerNature. Henri Poincaré was, of course, considering my interests, a participant at the conference, but my planned scope for the research and book is much broader. I am emphasizing the development of the participants’ attitude to the theory of quanta (both those who influenced and who were influenced), and also on the personal and social interactions between colleagues, especially Marie Curie, Paul Langevin, Jean Perrin, Henri Poincaré and Albert Einstein. These interactions involve both their personal dynamics and intrigue, and also their implication and involvement in polarizing social issues of their time: pseudoscience, misogyny, xenophobia, nationalism and the Dreyfus affair.