Torah, Ice Hockey, and Astrophysics

(Paperback)

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Description

This book contains Ira's stories about growing up in the sputnik era, a unique time in our nation's history where science was richly funded and exciting new ideas in physics were developing. Ira also wrote a series of essays weaving the ideas of ice hockey and physics into the weekly Torah portion. Ira completed a draft of this manuscript only a few days before his death. It represents his thoughts about Torah from a unique perspective and the values and ethics he wanted to leave as a legacy. He broadened "Astrophysics" to include all of physics, and mathematics and computing as well. Not every chapter has something on all three topics, but you may find a connection of which he was not aware. Some chapters are transcripts of Torah commentaries (divrei Torah) that he was privileged to give at local synagogues in the Seattle area, along with some additional explanatory material. Some are accounts of thought-provoking experiences. Perhaps you will be inspired to write your own. There is much more to learn.

Author Bio

Ira Kalet was born in Stamford, Connecticut, and grew up in Rockville Centre, New York. He attended college at Cornell University, majoring in physics, and obtained a Ph.D. in theoretical physics at Princeton University. His career interests included quantum mechanics, computer programming, and medicine which led to a faculty position at the University of Washington in Radiation Oncology and Biomedical Informatics. His research interests include simulation systems for design of radiation treatment planning software for cancer therapy, software development methodology and artificial intelligence applications to medicine, particularly expert systems, ontologies and modeling. While at Cornell he developed a love of hockey and played intramural ice hockey. When he moved to Seattle, Washington in 1968 he was drawn to the mountains, and became an avid high angle rock climber. His many interests in social justice, Torah (Jewish tradition, thought and practice), ice hockey (he played defense on a local recreational ice hockey team) and theoretical physics led him to write this book.