Links from  :  Vlasta, Jan & Jan (jnr) Perina, Pavlina Plevova and  Antonin Lukš   

Carberry Tower

P S Farago and R M Sillitto

Reminiscence from Olomouc

On the occasion of such a round birthday of Dick Sillitto it is good time to remember some earlier events in the life.  

We have met for the first time at the Carberry Tower in July 1969 at the first summer school on Quantum Optics (just Americans started to the Moon, now I am writing after Colombia was destroyed) organized by Dick Sillitto and Prof P. Farago.  That was the Tenth Scottish Universities Summer School in Physics.  My career in quantum optics in that time was rather short and I was happy to receive an invitation from the Directors of the School to give a seminar.  Moreover, in that time it was quite difficult for us to go abroad even to participate in a scientific meeting.  I was successful in arranging all formalities and I could go from the Warsaw Pact to a NATO Summer School.  First to London from Prague by airplane and from London to Edinburgh by fast train, together with my colleague R. Horak, who was also able to participate in the School. That was an excellent experience for me.







'contents' of seminar by Jan Perina
 I still remember my first meeting with Dick in the alley of the Castle at the Carberry Tower.  I also remember that Dick was able to pronounce at once correctly my name involving the special Czech consonant .  We have spent there, owing to Dick, some excellent time and met so many people important for future development of quantum optics (I can mention N. Bloembergen, R.J. Glauber, H. Haken, A. Kastler, W.H. Louisell, E.R. Pike, G.W. Series, G. Toraldo di Francia, L. Mandel, A.L. Schawlow, D.F. Walls, R. Graham, F. Haake and many others).  I am proud of my contribution being included in the book of the School under the title Quantum Optics, edited by S.M. Kay and A. Maitland (Academic Press, London 1970).  This was really great help of Dick at the beginning of my career in quantum optics.  
kittiwakes in Dunbar


I can also remember extremely interesting Dick's lecture on sea birds given by him and nice trips organized during the School.  Also the town of Edinburgh induced permanent beautiful pictures into my memory.



Luks, Perinova, Sillitto at Dunbar station

V. Perinova at Dunbar station

waiting at Dunbar for the London-Edinburgh train
  It was hardly two years after restoration of the plurality democracy in our country when my wife Vlasta Perinova and Antonin Lukš were successful in participating in the European Quantum Electronics Conference and Tenth National Quantum Electronics Conference, which were held at the Heriot-Watt University at Riccarton near Edinburgh in 1991.  Vivid impressions of lectures, talks, and discussions influenced both her and him to devote most effort to the study of the phase observable and the quantum phase distribution.  This stimulated them to start the writing of the book Phase in Optics, which was published by V. Perinova in coauthorship with A. Lukš and J. Perina in World Scientific Publishing House in 1998.  

Dick, Vlasta and Antonin outside the Sillittos' flat in Dunbar, 1991

The Sillittos answered the interest of V. Perinova and A. Lukš during the conference as an invitation to tea.  Since it was a long way to get to Dunbar where the hosts lived, the guests were offered a trip through a pleasant countryside of Scotland in the sun of the late summer.  They were shown the flat in the former merchant port.  The guests remember nice time spent with Winifred and Dick Sillittos and their hospitality over beautiful photographs.

Jan and Vlasta saw heather in bloom in the Lammermuirs


Winifred, Vlasta, Dick

Jan Perina, 1994

Jan, Winifred, Vlasta
  I was happy to be invited again together with my wife (and also partly with our son Jan, who just attended the 44th Scottish Universitites Summer School in Physics devoted to Quantum Dynamics of Simple Systems held at Stirling) by Dick and Winifred to visit Dunbar in summer 1994 and to make so many nice trips during the stay, including the call on your son's family house in Edinburgh, seeing the town, an Atomic Power Station and a Lighthouse, together with Winifred and Dick.

Vlasta, Winifred and Jan at St Abb's Head, 1994
 
  The Sillittos lived over various significant events of my family life, e.g. the happy event of wedding of our daughter Pavlina. I am also strongly obliged to Dick for his kind help with my books published by Van Nostrand Reinhold Company and Kluwer Academic Publishers starting with my first book on Coherence of Light published in 1972. Our constructive interference continued in my further author's activities. I would like to thank Dick for more than 30 years of fruitful interaction having quite fundamental meaning for my scientific career and life, and for his friendship. We all wish him good health and everything the best for future years.
Jan Perina, Vlasta Perinova,
Jan Perina, Jr., Pavlina Plevova,
Antonin Lukš
 
 
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