Harold M. Frost
President & Owner Frosty's Physics, LLC
Sheffield, Vermont
Background: My whole physics career for over four decades has been as a scientific researcher into physical mechanisms of effects and phenomena of radiation on materials, devices, and people, plus transducers and arrays for generating and detecting radiation. This includes: Nuclear, electromagnetic, and mechanical (viz., acoustic and elastodynamic) radiation.
Question 1: Why did you become a physicist?
Answer: I choose to become a research scientist for two reasons. 1. As a junior high school student in Vermont with my own chemistry lab at home as paid for by paper route earnings, I wanted to be independent of parental control. 2. As a college prep student in high school in New Hampshire, there were vocational decision pressures due to the Sputnik scare then.
Question 2: What are you most proud of in your work?
Answer: Two accomplishments stand out in my work. First, my 1974 physics doctoral dissertation at the University of Vermont that discovered experimental and theoretical evidence for a new medical ultrasound bioeffects mechanism, and second, in 2010, development of a new methodology for successfully doing exploratory scientific research, as based on a Double Hypothesis Algorithm and demonstrated convincingly via radiation effects research projects.
Question 3: Share a comment or opinion you have on a topical science-related issue
Answer: Ethics in a STEM research field are more than avoiding plagiarism or conflicts of interest or in not 'cooking' data when publishing one's results. Ethics also entail choosing and staying with research topics which, even if professionally risky to embrace, have significance for long-term societal benefit.
Question 4: Tell us about a hobby or passion outside of work.
Answer: Walking on old country roads, established trails, and even 'bushwhacking' during day trips on forested routes, as presently in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. These include 'in and out' routes, and loops.
Question 5: What's your favorite food? Got a sweet tooth? Caffeine junkie?
Answer: I like straight espresso from freshly ground Arabica beans, or failing that, strong, black coffee, such as Extra Bold varieties distributed by Keurig.
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