Recorded in Santa Barbara

Good to see you. I am sorry I am not able to be there for your birthday. Jackie and I really loved our visit last year, and I am sure we would have enormously enjoyed what I expect will be a great party, but at the moment we have a previous engagement somewhere in Thailand. I have known Claudio since he was a mere lad of 22, a young graduate student of Johnnie Wheeler when I first came to Princeton. He then stayed on as an Assistant Professor, so I have known him for more than half of his life. After Princeton he went to Texas and a few years later, much to my surprise, returned to Chile, first on a part time basis, and then full time. I must say that at the time I was surprised and amazed that he did this. I really admired him for his courage and dedication in going back to Chile to help build science at such a very difficult and dangerous time. I was delighted over the years to visit Claudio at the institute that he established in Santiago and later in Valdivia. I tried to do the little I could do to help him in his remarkable leadership in developing science in Chile and in healing the wounds of previous hard times.