Ken Stalder

Profile Updated: June 11, 2022
Ken Stalder
Ken Stalder

Now

Ken Stalder

Yearbook

Yes! Attending Reunion
Residing In: Redwood City, CA USA
Spouse/Partner: Patricia
Occupation: Physicist
Children: Katherine, Julia
Comments:

Hello! I have spent most of my time since high school working on several physics research areas, raising a family, and continuing my pursuit of perfection in golf (elusive!).
I went to UCSD and graduated in 1974 in Physics, then went directly to UC Berkeley and eventually got my Ph.D. in Physics in 1882. I got married in 1981 to Pat, and raised two great daughters. They are mostly done with university schooling for now, and are entering the working world pursuing their dreams (Katherine works at Facebook, and Julia works for NASA).
Since Paly I have spent a good deal of time doing a variety of activities with former classmates and longtime friends, including Pete Keesling (drinking his home brew and talking about old cars, etc.), Jim Yeaman (golf), Scott Kilner (great overseas travel host), Rick Cohen (the jokes never stop!), Rusty Rector (bridge), Brad Fenz (golf) and many others.
After graduate school I spent a year at UC Irvine working on experimental plasma physics, then went to Applied Materials in 1983 and worked in corporate research for almost 4 years. In 1986 I had an opportunity to go to SRI International and joined the Molecular Physics Lab, where I worked full time until 1999, and very low-level part time since then. Since then I started my own consulting company (Stalder Technologies and Research). I have really enjoyed the freedom that has brought to me. One of my early clients, ArthroCare Corp., a medical device company, persuaded me to work part time for them, which has continued ever since. I have had a long connection with a colleague at Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, and in 2008 I became an Honorary Visiting Professor of Physics at QUB. So I travel to Belfast 2-3 times a year and work on experimental physics there during the day, and enjoy the pub life during the nights.
After a long hiatus from golf during the college years I resumed playing golf when the kids were young, and have played pretty regularly since then. I am currently playing most of my golf back at Palo Alto Muni, and am even on the Board of Directors of the PAGC.
So between physics, family, golf, and my travels I have been fairly busy for the last 40 years. I am hoping to continue all of those activities well into the future, as they are all still fun.

School Story:

Well a lot of memories have faded, but I remember lunches in the patio with many friends, discussing mostly sports. I don't recall anything too funny about those lunches, but I am sure we had fun. Although I wasn't a great student, I liked most of my teachers. Mr. Parker (math), Mr. Martin (physics), Mrs. Rodman (biology), Mr. Esse (math), Mr. Fisher (gym and golf coach), Mr. Donahue (gym and golf coach), Mr. White (math), Mrs. Miller(business, typing) and Mrs. Wolfsohn (history) Mr. Lesinski (history) were very influential. Golf was the only sport that interested me enough to stick with it. I have many fond memories of the golf team, which included classmates Rick Sonne, Ron Chauvel, Tom Erickson, and Sandy Scherling and Coaches Wes Fisher and Bill Donahue.

Elementary Schools Attended:

Garland

Junior High School

Jordan

Colleges Attended

UCSD (A.B. Physics 1974)
UC Berkeley (M.A. Physics 1976, Ph.D. Physics 1982)