No. 681 Richard Normann, 2011

File — Box: 70, Folder: 8

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Richard Normann, professor of bioengineering at the University of Utah and former department chair, remembers his childhood, education, and his long career at the University of Utah. He pays particular attention to his background, and to his scientific accomplishments, most saliently the Utah Electrical Array. Born in Oakland, California, in 1943 to Danish parents, Normann first got into engineering helping his father repair the pinball machines that ensured the family’s livelihood. Normann focuses on his father’s background including his immigration to the United States, his education, and his rise to a prosperous walnut farmer, underpinned by a jukebox and pinball machine business. Normann’s own high school education left him ill-prepared for the rigors of the University of California at Berkeley, yet through hard work and odd jobs on the side he achieved a PhD in electrical engineering, as the field of bioengineering did not yet exist, despite his lack of interest in conventional electrical engineering. Time as a technician in the Berkeley physiology department shaped his interest in bioengineering. He details his odd jobs, including a stint at Crown Zellerbach paper company, and focuses on the powerful influence his thesis advisor, Frank Werblin, exerted on his career. Following his time at Berkeley, Normann completed a small postdoc at University of California at San Francisco medical school, and a stint as a staff fellow at the Bethesda, Maryland, National Institute of Health where he met his wife, distinguished retinal anatomist Helga Kolb, who moved with him to the University of Utah in 1979. He covers the development of the Utah Electrical Array, first tried in 1989, in great detail, including contributors, inspirations, and funding sources, and shares his thoughts on the artificial heart project and on the evolution of bioengineering both now and in the future. Normann also reflects on the Department of Bioengineering’s locational split between the Merrill Engineering Building and the biopolymers building near the Moran Eye Center. Normann spends some time covering his relaxed teaching style, emphasizing the professor’s reliance on good students to achieve success. He credits some of his good fortune with the fact that bioengineering is a growth industry with high student interest. A repeated theme throughout the interview is Normann’s emphasis on serendipity. As he remembers it, his career largely consisted of, besides hard work, being in the right place, at the right time, with the right students. He spends some time exploring his teaching career and salient students. The tireless Normann completed another doctorate, in education, at the University of London Institute of Education in 2009.
Project: University of Utah Oral History Project.
Interviewer: Anne Peterson.

Dates

2011

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.