![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Choyke1.jpg\" "\\"Wolfgang")
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\n\tBy MARTY LEVINE<\/p>\n
\n\tThere is nothing physics faculty member Wolfgang J. \u201cJim\u201d Choyke seems to like to talk about more than the work he has done here since 1974 \u2014 the work he has done beginning in 1955 at Westinghouse locally, and the work he continues to stay up to date on past his 100th birthday this summer.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn his small office in Allen Hall, the past looms overhead, in jammed bookshelves that also hold the records of his endeavors. But the future \u2014 and the current work in physics that creates it \u2014 is first on Choyke\u2019s mind: \u201cI love what I\u2019m doing and I love talking to my colleagues. That\u2019s one thing that keeps you going. I am very excited to hear them talk\u201d about new things they are doing.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen people ask him why he never retired, he notes that some retire to pursue a hobby, but \u201cI don\u2019t have time for a hobby. Physics is very competitive, so you work seven days a week to do a good job. You shouldn\u2019t go into physics if you\u2019re not completely dedicated.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI keep up with a lot of colleagues, on the e-mail and telephone,\u201d he adds \u2014 including a group at Montana State University whose experiments on silicon carbide as a semi-conductor continue the focus of his own laboratory here, which ceased operation when he was 93 \u2014 too early, Choyke says.<\/p>\n
\n\tChoyke was a pioneer in silicon carbide work. Today, out in Montana, his fellow researchers seem to have hit a snag in aiming to reduce the substance\u2019s kinetic energy as near to zero as possible, he explains. using 1- to 10-micron-sized bits of silicon carbide with next to no kinetic energy would allow for \u201csuper-sensitive magnetic measurements,\u201d he says, which would have lots of applications. Which applications? \u201cIt hasn\u2019t come to that part yet,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHave plenty of patience,\u201d he advises anyone starting out in the study of physics today. He began studying silicon carbide 70 years ago at Westinghouse \u201cand it\u2019s only today that it\u2019s a worldwide multi-billion-dollar industry,\u201d allowing for high-power, high-voltage, high-temperature chips that run electric cars, for instance.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe joined Pitt from Westinghouse, he said, because \u201cthat was a time when the funding for silicon carbide went more or less to zero, so I got sucked into the fusion program\u201d at the University. He first came here as an adjunct professor, working right away in Allen Hall as well as in the Van de Graaff Building behind it.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe first days were very complicated,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThey really didn\u2019t have a place for me to have an office,\u201d and he was shuffled around until they could find a permanent space. Eventually he and the fusion scientists already here found a new collaboration using their particle accelerators. That\u2019s when he knew, \u201cthis is going to require a very ambitious program.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI knew exactly what we were trying to do, but I had to figure out the lay of the land \u2026 and we had to figure out how to build all this stuff in a nuclear physics lab.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOne of the greatest joys of the job, he said, was attending international conferences all over the world, \u201cinstead of taking vacations. I\u2019ve been to almost every place in Europe and many times to Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe taught upper-class mechanics and electromagnetic theory to freshman physics students. \u201cI liked teaching very much, but I hated making up exams and grading exams and all the paperwork.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI had a very strong feeling that undergraduates should be able to join a research group,\u201d he adds, \u201cto get a feel of what graduate work is all about and to get a bit of a feel of what hands-on work is all about.\u201d Beginning with two to three undergraduates joining the graduate students in faculty labs, since then he has counted 95 undergraduates participating in his department\u2019s research programs.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI still keep in contact with a lot of these kids,\u201d he says, showing a 100th-birthday email that arrived from a 1970s student, crediting Choyke with teachings that guided the student\u2019s entire career. He hears from former undergrads that lab work was their most meaningful experience at Pitt, he says.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThese kids need to be talked to,\u201d he says, suggesting extra attention to undergraduates in the department. \u201cYou need to take time to give them personal attention.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI personally do not believe that people learn anything from watching slides,\u201d he offers.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a complete waste of time. The way you learn anything is through a pen\u201d \u2014\u00a0through the act of absorbing and writing down what the instructor says and, in the process, making sense of it.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe remembers with great fondness the annual departmental picnics at the home of Professor Jim McGruer \u201csomewhere beyond Murrysville. It was always a joyous event for professors, postdocs, graduate students, undergraduates and technicians.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen he first arrived on campus, it was actually possible to park right next to the Van de Graaff Building. And Allen Hall still held a remnant of some sort of work \u2014 he isn\u2019t certain what \u2014 on its fifth floor. That remnant was the smell: \u201cIt turned out that in the early years of Allen Hall, the Mellon Institute kept live research animals on the fifth floor. Their effluence seeped into the floor and whenever there was a flood of sorts on the fifth floor\u201d \u2014 sometimes there were leaks during heavy rains or snow \u2014 \u201cour labs on the fourth floor would get a whiff of the ancient past.\u201d Happily, he says, cleaning and renovation eventually fixed all of that.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe remembers his seats in Oakland\u2019s famed Syria Mosque, just behind Jonas Salk one season, and one particular concert of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra featuring a Dvo\u0159\u00e1k cello concerto by Zara Nelsova under conductor William Steinberg. He and his brother-in-law braved a winter storm to sit among just 250 people there. \u201cBefore the concert, Steinberg, who never talked to the audience, invited everyone to move to the front rows of every section. After the concert Steinberg remarked, \u201c\u2018Now I know who the real music lovers are in Pittsburgh.\u2019 We had to fight our way home in the snow.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tNowadays, Choyke comes in to the office only once a week, working at home more often than not. But he still likes to shepherd people through the Cathedral of Learning and its Nationality Rooms: \u201cI like taking people around and showing them the University.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMarty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times.\u00a0Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu<\/a> or\u00a0412-758-4859.<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHave a story idea or news to share?\u00a0Share<\/a>\u00a0it with the University Times.<\/p>\n