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Irvine Israel Glass fonds Series
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Personal files

This small series contains Dr. Glass' curriculum vitae, entries for biographical dictionaries, press clippings and articles; appointment calendars for 1974 and 1976; files from his employment as a stress analysts at Canadair (1945) and in 1947 as an aeronautical engineer with the Canadian Car and Foundry; and a file containing an offer of a position at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology (1971-1972).

Addresses and public lectures

Dr. Glass was much sought after as a public lecturer and gave freely of his time. Most of the addresses relate to his professional work, but he also took time to share his private passions, especially the utilization of geothermal energy and his research on the Jews in China. The last arose from his invitations to visit China in 1980 and 1985, where he was awarded an honorary professorship from the prestigious Nanjing Aeronautical Institute.

The files contain drafts of addresses, covering correspondence, notes, programs, press coverage, photoprints and slides.

Manuscripts and publications

This series contains manuscripts and the occasional offprint of book reviews, articles, chapters of books, and books written by Dr. Glass. There is also covering correspondence, contracts, notes, reviews, and photoprints tipped in with the manuscripts. The arrangement is chronological.

This series is very incomplete; it contains material on only about 50 of the approximately 200 publications written or co-authored by Dr. Glass. There are no manuscripts or publications, for example, for the years 1954, 1960, 1963-1966, 1969, 1973, 1984, and 1987, and the years represented are not always complete. For some of the publications, there is only covering correspondence; for others, the manuscript is incomplete; and for a few, there is only an offprint.

Graphic material

This series consists of photoprints, photonegatives, and slides assembled by Dr. Glass in the course of his research, teaching duties, his writing, and for his public addresses and lectures, which are not specifically connected to manuscript material in other series.

The arrangement of the photographs and negatives is generally by topic. There is a representative sampling of images from the Institute for Aerospace Studies, of Dr. Glass' involvement with Avro Corporation and with NASA, and of various aspects of his research.

A number of the slides relate to unidentified lectures. The remainder is arranged by topic, generally in alphabetical order.

Boxes B1994/0033/003P, 009P, and 010P contain material that largely, or in part, belongs to series 9.

Correspondence

This series contains Dr. Glass' extensive correspondence files on a wide variety of personal and professional issues. The arrangement by broad topics (consulting, 1955-1982; "personal" correspondence from his office, 1950-1969), then general correspondence, filed chronologically (1959-1987), and finally by alphabetically by name of organization for the files relating to Dr. Glass' involvement in Jewish issues.

The last category begins with files on Canada-Israel cultural exchange, including the work of the Canada-Israel Chamber of Commerce and Industry (1972-1981). These are followed by files of the University of Toronto chapter of Canadian Professors for Peace in the Middle East (1974-1987), but the greatest volume relates to the conditions of Jews in the Soviet Union. Much of the work on this issue was done through the Canadian Academic Committee for Soviet Jewry and the Committee of Concerned Scientists, including its Canadian branch. Of particular concern was the treatment of the scientist, Benjamin Levich, in whose honour conferences were organized. Dr. Glass played a very active role in these events.

The files on Jewish issues contain, in addition to letters, press coverage, notes, memoranda, and minutes.

Sabbatical leave and trips

Dr. Glass was granted sabbatical leave in 1957-1958, 1970-1971, and 1974-1975. His first leave was spent in England, primarily at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. His proposed sabbatical leave for 1966-1967 had to be postponed and he took it in 1970-1971. He arranged a global trip, which took him to the 8th International Shock Tube Symposium in London and the International Symposium on the Dynamics of Ionized Gases in Tokyo.

In 1972 he began planning for his next sabbatical. It began in England, and continued through France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark. As his book, Shock Waves and Man, had recently appeared, he was much in demand both in academic and research (both military and civilian) circles as a speaker. He then went on to Israel, Iran, India, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Japan. While in Japan as a visiting professor, he attended the 10th International Shock Tube Symposium. He returned to Toronto via Hawaii, San Francisco and Chicago, giving lectures and seminars as he went.

In addition to his sabbatical leaves, Dr. Glass travelled widely. His first major trip was to the USSR in 1961, with a side vacation to Israel. In 1963, he visited a number of universities in the mid and western United States. In 1965, he was back in Europe attending the VII Symposium on Advanced Problems and Methods in Fluid Dynamics in Poland. In 1980, he made another tour of the Far East, visiting China as a guest of the Academy of Sciences, and then going on to Japan. In 1985, he made a return visit, receiving an "honorary professoriate" from the Nanjing Aeronautical Institute.

The files contain correspondence, calendars and diaries, notes, research notes, conference programs, abstracts, drafts of lectures and addresses, and photoprints. There is extensive material on the symposia mentioned above.

Professional associations and conferences

Dr. Glass belonged to many professional associations, in some of which he played a very active role. He was also much in demand as an adviser to and participant in conferences in his areas of specialization. This series reflects his involvement in these areas; additional information may also be found in the addresses in series 10.

There are extensive files are on the fluid dynamics divisions of the American Physical Society and NASA, on the aerodynamics committee of the National Research Council of Canada, and on the geothermal energy study of the Science Council of Canada, which Dr. Glass headed. The conferences represented are mostly international ones on gasdynamics and shock tubes. Dr. Glass also sat on a number of editorial boards and was the founder of the journal, Shock Waves.

The material in this series includes correspondence, programs, minutes, reports, lecture notes, addresses, press clippings, and photographs.

Personal files

This series contains biographical sketches compiled for internal University of Toronto purposes and for several biographical dictionaries (ca. 1960-1992), including a selection of photographs; a personal data file compiled by Professor Glass in July, 1986; certificates and diplomas for academic and honorary degrees and other awards (1947-1986); and press clippings (1977-1985).

Correspondence

Dr. Glass was a prolific letter writer and this series represents only a small portion of his total output. The remainder will be found in accession B94-0033. There are two "personal correspondence files" from his office, covering the years 1964-1966 and 1968-1971. The remaining eight files contain extensive personal correspondence for the months of April, 1981 to mid-July, 1982, and October, 1987 through October, 1988, witha few letters for 1983, 1985 and 1993.

The "personal correspondence files" from his office encompass the personal side of his professional work, such as invitations to conferences and speaking engagements, references, and internal reports and meetings.

The personal correspondence for 1981-1982 relates primarily to Dr. Glass being appointed a University Professor, to his part in the campaign on behalf of Andrei Sakharov and other Soviet refusniks and dissidents, to exchange programs between the University of Toronto and other universities, and to conferences. The files for 1987 and 1988 contain much correspondence by the Committee of Concerned Scientists on the extradition of Nazi war criminals, particularly Alois Brunner, and on the campaign to allow Soviet Jewish refusniks to emigrate. Most of the remaining letters are devoted to a discussion to Professor Glass's ongoing research and writings and to his interest in Jews in China.

The arrangement is chronological.

Organizations and conferences

Dr. Glass belonged to many professional associations, and was in wide demand at conferences. He also, as already has been noted, was deeply involved in a number of organizations devoted to various causes on behalf of Jewish peoples. The activities of both groups overlapped, especially on the issue of scientific freedom.

The organizations represented here are the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1980-1981), the Canadian Committee of Scientists and Scholars (1980-1981), the Commission on Post-Secondary Education in Ontario (1971), the Committee of Concerned Scientists (1980-1986), the 2nd International Colloquium on Gasdynamics of Explosions held in Novosibirisk, USSR, in 1969 (1966-1972), the International Conference in Honour of Andrei Sakharov (1981), the 15th International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics held at the University of Toronto in 1980 (1979-1980), the Sino-Judaic Institute (1981-1990), and the University of Toronto protest regarding anti-Semitism in the USSR (1976-1978).

The organization files contain primarily correspondence, with some background and other reports, programs, notes, manuscripts and press clippings. The conference files also contain some addresses.

The arrangement is alphabetical.