So, you thought that The Descartes Laboratory was named after René Descartes, the 17th century French mathematician, philosopher, and scientist who is considered the father of analytic geometry and the founder of modern rationalism. Wrong. The name is an Englishman’s pun on the Frenchman’s name. I’ll let Professor Keith Clarke explain:
“In 1996 I wrote a proposal to NSF’s Laboratory Improvement program to renovate and re-equip the cartography laboratory at UCSB Geography. The equipment in the lab was part of a donation from IBM in the original days of NCGIA and was sadly out of date. I proposed a lab based on Silicon Graphics O2 workstations. At first, NSF rejected my proposal, with the panel arguing that Windows and Intel was the future, not UNIX. I countered with a second proposal, arguing that the then monopoly charges against Microsoft meant that variety was desirable. In the end, NSF funded the project, and Silicon graphics donated a portion of the equipment. To make the project sound substantive, and in an era when we were talking about project Varenius, I adopted the tongue-in-cheek name for the NSF proposal of “Project Descartes.” After all, Descartes was a leading figure in the plane geometry and theory necessary for computer cartography, and we always had called the lab “The Cart lab.” I transformed that to “Des Cart Lab,” and the name stuck. In preparation for the opening, I created (with help from MIL) the blue canvas-printed image in the laboratory, inspired by the artwork in Jeff Star’s memory in the other lab (the quilt). I named the painting “Land Wave.” From one perspective, it looks like what it is, a 3D rendering of the Santa Ynez Mountains and the coastal plane around Santa Barbara. But close your eyes a bit, and it looks like a wave crashing on the beach. The new lab, including color-matched carpet, new paint, furniture, and cork-boards, was opened with fanfare in March 1999. It has been in constant use since, and has seen several generations of new equipment. I am pleased to say that UNIX is still a featured OS in the Descartes.”
Editor’s note: For more of Paul Van Zuyle’s photos of the Descartes Lab debut, click here. Article written by Bill Norrington
