Martin L. Perl, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in physics for teh discovery of the tau lepton, received an honorary doctorate of science at commencement on June 14th.

Perl credits Union with his decision to study physics, thanks to classes he took while working as a chemical engineer for the General Electric Co. in Schenectady.

“I got to know a wonderful physics professor, Vladimir Rojansky,” Perl writes in his official biographical statement. “One day he said to me ‘Martin, what you are interested in is called physics, not chemistry!’ At the age of 23, I finally decided to begin the study of physics.”

For more on Martin Perl, see the Chronicle story