Gary Rutledge grew up outside Seattle, Washington. He expects to graduate from William & Mary this coming spring with a Ph.D. in experimental particle physics.

My father was a pilot in the Air Force. He retired and then spent most of his time buying and repairing old airplanes. He put them back together and I helped him. I learned how to machine aircraft parts to specific tolerances. We were picky because we had to be.

By my late teens I had decided to go beyond engineering. You could build new and different things but discovery was limited. I kept wanting to know why things worked the way they did. Asking those questions eventually gets you down to the atomic levels. Physics just had the answers. Physics courses were the ones that gave me the biggest challenge.

My father passed away while I was still an undergraduate. Due to financial concerns and some unfinished family business I left school and took a series of local jobs. I returned to school, four years later when I was 26. While I was finishing my electrical engineering degree I was hired by Boeing in Everett, Washington. I worked for them and went to school as well.

Gary Rutledge stands in Hall A with the cryotarget he helped develop (in the background over his left shoulder).

Going back to school was the best thing I could have ever done. I lost nothing because of the experience I brought with me. In the real world, I found that many people lacked discipline. I was really shocked to learn that I could jump in and get things done while others were still complaining they had something to do in the first place... I have a need for hands-on. I want to do things and see more connections to the real world.

I came to Williamsburg in 1994. William and Mary had this bright, shiny new toy called CEBAF in their backyard. People were building a new thing. Ideas are being developed as we speak. To be part of this from the ground up is great.

That's why I love physics. It's working with new ideas, figuring out things to do with those ideas. When you come right down to it, it's play.

I arrived in Williamsburg with a set of precision machinist tools designed for the aircraft industry and experience in using them. I had my electronics background and, by then, a degree in physics. All together it was a perfect match for a Hall B project that was just starting. It was mechanically complex and had many physical qualities that needed to be understood. I also worked on developing the Hall A cryotarget. I oversaw the construction of HAPPEX detectors from start to finish, from design to installation. I gained invaluable experience working on the ground level with these projects and several others.

Being a graduate student at JLab is fantastic. The working conditions here are quite good. When you need parts you have them. There's nothing to stop you from creating. The attitudes of the people here are excellent. There¹s no hesitancy in working together.

The technicians make an incredible difference. They're easy to work with. When you call at four in the morning, they take your calls, answer your questions and fix your problems. If they don't know the answer to something, they¹ll tell you.

I've been in industry, so I've learned to work more efficiently with less upset. Assertiveness pays off. You can be assertive here without earning any black marks. This same attitude of getting things done doesn't always work elsewhere. The only thing I worry about is the possibility that some students could come in here and be lost in the hubbub. But the JLab student association should help.

I'd like to stay here at the Lab and take a post doc, directly from the Lab or a member institution. There will be openings that will present themselves. It might be Jefferson Lab. It might be Fermilab. It might be CERN. I'll go wherever a good job calls.

Editor's note: For more information about the Graduate Student Association go to JLab¹s main web page and click on "student/teachers" and follow the links.

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