The logic of Dick Garwin: a remembrance

Editor’s note: This essay is part of a collection of appreciations of Dick Garwin.

The last time I saw Dick Garwin was May 6, just a week before his passing. He, as usual, had joined a regular weekly virtual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on International Security and Arms Control (CISAC)^[1] to discuss upcoming interactions with international counterparts. His consistent presence in these and so many other CISAC meetings epitomized his commitment to building and sustaining long-term relationships with experts like himself who dedicated their professional lives to reducing the risks associated with the world’s most catastrophic weapons—including those he helped to develop.

Richard Garwin’s sharp mind, attentiveness to detail, and laser focus on the technical as well as strategic issues before us were as powerful as his decades of persistence in working to preserve stability and promote peace. Dick was present at the founding of CISAC, and there was a certain poignant symmetry to his presence through to the very last of his days.

As a young staff member at CISAC, I must admit that early on I was a bit intimidated to support meetings in which Dick was an active participant because he was an absolute, larger-than-life legend. Over time, though, what struck me about my interactions with Dick was not just his obvious scientific and technical prowess. Rather, it was the very way Dick’s mind was organized around highly sophisticated logical frameworks that permeated absolutely every aspect of his encounters with the everyday banal world, from breakfast to file names.

In time, I came to really appreciate Dick Garwin the scientist when I saw more richly Dick Garwin the person.

Garwin’s breakfast logic was crisp: sweet and savory items don’t mix. That makes sense. However, if I did not follow this clear logic through to the end—as Dick followed a scientific principle through to its engineering execution—a simple catered breakfast would be, well, as underwhelming as a failed lab experiment.

As a staff member, I knew the favorite menus of our regular CISAC committee members: lox, capers, red onion, boiled egg, and bagels. The standard order included bagels of all types. But this was a problem: Dick’s simple, clear breakfast logic concluded that only savory bagels should accompany lox, because, as he told me more than once, “who puts lox on a blueberry bagel?” After two meetings in a row when blueberry bagels made their ignominious appearance, I made certain to note on all future catering orders: “No SWEET bagels, please.”

Shortly thereafter, I began emphatically adding another note when the caterers decided to follow the nutritional advice of the National Academies’ reports—which suggests that Americans consume fewer calories—and started to cut the (non-sweet) bagels in half—vertically. Again, Dick’s breakfast logic led him to the obvious conclusion that one could not create lox sandwiches on vertically-sliced half bagels. True enough.

The logic of Dick’s mind not only improved our breakfasts, but it also left a lasting impact on several everyday practices within CISAC. One stands out: a consistent convention for file names.

Having served on thousands of committees and projects, Dick knew the importance of ensuring that everyone works from the same version of the same document. I will never forget Dick stopping a substantive discussion during a working meeting to rather insistently demonstrate what he meant by a proper file name (an explicit title, the author’s name, a date, and a status) and then stating equally insistently that we follow it, starting “well, immediately.” I understood the assignment: Next to the hundreds of Academy documents on my computer that Dick either authored or contributed to, you will find my appreciation of him saved as “The Logic of Dick Garwin_A Remebrance_Guenther_5_21_2025_Final.”

Dick Garwin was a true genius. Enrico Fermi was right. But that genius was not confined to his scientific achievements alone. It was evident in how he approached everything in life. His singularity of logic and focus allowed him to solve incredible scientific, engineering, and medical problems. It also allowed those around him to enjoy a much better breakfast and keep their files straight. Dick Garwin, the scientist and the person, will be missed.

Notes

[1] The National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on International Security and Arms Control is distinct from Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, both shortened to CISAC.