Kalle Levon
Professor


General Information

Tel: 718.260.3339
Room: RH 801
Email: klevon@poly.edu



THE START : Following Lone Bear, the Kiowa Chief
Opening Speech, August 1995
Kalle Levon
Department Chairman

"The number of successful events is directly proportional to the number of initial tries, if the probability of the events is assumed to be constant."

Only 30 years ago, in the sixties, society did not have much for respect people in entertainment and sports. While scientists and engineers still had to “work hard” and to concentrate on building the society in order to improve the quality of life, the entertainers and athletes were "just playing." This was during the time when educators were still highly respected in the society.
Today society respects athletes, singers, artists, but, unfortunately the respect towards scientists have decreased. But who is to blame? Science and chemistry has created a negative image with environmental accidents, chemical warfare, and pollution. It was also easy to respect a scientist who invented the steam engine, because it was easy to understand how it works. It is difficult to respect something one does not understand, especially if someone is afraid of it. The society is and will be more and more dependent on scientists and engineers. We have to bring science to people, teach them understanding in their language, and make them comfortable with science. Berstein did it to classical music, why can't we do it with science? We have to broaden the educational concepts. As scientists and engineers will have more responsibilities in the society, we have to provide engineers a broader education, including an emphasis on social sciences.
And the society keeps changing at a fast pace. The children will be using their computers without keyboards, the speech will be influenced by voice-activated computers, they will talk without articles, without the letter h, without emotions, they learn science much earlier through all the multi-media, they will behave differently, but they will concentrate effectively by bio-feed back instruments, actively already used with pilots and athletes. They are now 12-13 year olds, are we ready for them in five years?
 
A logical way to increase quality is to maximize quantity.

But at the same time, entertainers and athletes have done everything to maximize their quality. An ability to execute a quadruple jump in gymnastics is an effort to reach international reputation. A young student gymnast undergoes a learning process conducted by a team: 3-dimensional audiovisual learning with computerized biometrics in all dimensions, self-hypnosis with visual imagination to maximize the ability to relax, concentrate, optimal nutrition with novel sports medicine to control the energy consumption, excellent equipment with unique ceramic materials. Shortly, both quantity and quality in the effort have been maximized. And all these are also brought into the educational programs for physical education.
And arts are changing along the same trends. Gauguin and Cezanne revolutionized visual arts. With these sudden changes, we thought that Matisse’s blue would stay forever. But the Greenwich Village group did not stop: Jackson Pollock, Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, and all the others changed; changed towards new images. Today, under the Brooklyn Bridge, famous artists have their exhibition: they work together with mixed media, they grow plants in controlled dimensions using lighting, videos in the harmony with music, and they use relaxation methods to optimize inspiration. Now we may not understand all of it, but they are famous and they get support for they work in the front.
How often do we build teamwork around our scientific topics? Shouldn't an effort to investigate non-equilibrium phase transitions for proteins follow the above lines? All the research we do here is basically of high quality, we may proceed in the front of our detailed topic. But do we maximize the efforts in our research in a high quality manner?
No, our approaches are limited by our own individual minds.
So, for instance, the efforts understanding non-equilibrium phenomena in nature should involve teamwork. Physical chemistry of polymers with its present stage of knowledge will have an extreme importance in the future science. We can control the time scale even during the non-equilibrium conditions. But one has to understand also the complexity of biomolecules, one has to master computer modeling, one has to be a specialist in mathematics, a specialist in scattering methods is needed, and thus we have to build innovative inter-disciplinary teams to optimize, maximize our concentration, knowledge and efforts in order to be in the front.
 
A necessary way to succeed, is to try it first.

We need teamwork, we need quality improvement in our efforts, and nobody will do it for us, we have to start to do it ourselves. We can create teams around Iwao's fractionation, around Jovan's thermosets, around CM771, around CM102. No committees, just teams to work and finish the work. And the teamwork can be international, no boundaries, just based on the scientific needs. Open criticism is essential to quality improvements. The feedback will create innovation, the synergism will produce novel results. We need fascinating, novel, unique research areas. We may not know about the future applications, but we can start to work towards augmented understanding and the results will guide us. And we shall teach teamwork to our students; we do not need hands, but we need minds.
 
The more you dream, the more dreams will come true.

How often do we try intentionally to maximize our concentration. Shouldn't we apply imagination to our complex experimental image visualization. Aren't you full of ideas and further understanding after discussing with your colleague, who has talked highly of your work, at a cocktail party with a few beers outside the leaning tower of Pisa? The sports psychologists would have an immediate answer: it is natural because you were relaxed, your concentration was optimal, and your motivation was maximized with the safe and positive atmosphere.
We have to bring ourselves to the front where we rightfully belong. We have to create educational and research programs with such a high quality that we shall be recognized. And the program has to be so interdisciplinary that the school will be dependent on us.
The way to reach this high quality is not difficult to define, if we form team work, plan everything together, and work it truly with devotion, we shall be able to do it. It is not the time to be sensitive, to get insulted, we have to learn from the mistakes, and be supportive and positive. We have to share our science and knowledge. We must reach for new research areas, far away in the future. It is difficult to imagine what these areas are, but, again we can only get there by trying first, and synergism evolving from our cooperation will lead us to the frontiers of science.
These are the directions I favor, I shall try to build an open and constructive relation with our administration with positive incentive plans and I shall follow the words of Lone Bear, a Kiowa Chief, who in 1861, the Year of Horse Sacrifice Sun Dance, said:
 
"People who try the most deserve the best."