Know affectionately as the "Cruft Quiz Kid" by his students, one of Harvard's busiest wartime professors and one of its outstanding men of science, Professor Emory L. Chaffee, head of the Cruft Laboratories, now fills a gamut of war positions that would keep three normal men busy.

Giving up the private research and experiments for which he is internationally known to fill these posts, Professor Chaffee now heads the educational program of the Navy Radar School, is director of a special secret War Department Research project, and heads the engineering-communications division of the Communications School.

In addition to these war duties, Chaffee is Rumford Professor of Physics and Gordon McKay Professor of Physics and Communication Engineering and gives two courses for the University.

Hubbub of Activity

Never ruffled by all the rush about him, Chaffee, now 58, finds his office filled almost every hour of the day with Navy officers discussing new plans, his research affiliates, students, and others who have charge of administering his numerous activities.

Yet amid all this activity he still finds time to direct an orchestra and until this summer headed the Phillips Brooks House Service Relations Committee. It was while serving on this committee last winter that he received his most unique title. Appearing with five of his colleagues on a quiz program at an officer's party, Professor Chaffee was caricatured by a Boston Herald Cartoonist as "Leon, the Cruft Quiz Kid." The framed caricature now hangs proudly in Chaffee's outer office.

"Slide Rule Symphony"

An amateur magician, Professor Chaffee, directs the "Slide Rule Symphony" made up of his colleagues and officers from the Radar School. First debut of the orchestra was at a party last April at which the feature presentation was "Deep in the Heart of Texas" a la Chaffee. Chaffee himself plays the cornet and cello.

Dignified and reserved, yet with a strong sense of humor, his colleagues still tell the story of how he faked a death scene. Some years ago, happening to be in the laboratory when an experiment blew up, Chaffee thought he would make the most of the opportunity. Spreading false blood "around the laboratory, he prostrated himself on the floor in a lifeless position only to horrify the bewildered attendants who came running to the scene.

There's no time for horseplay now, though as Chaffee personally supervises all the courses given in the Radar school by paying visits to classes, checking on instruction and giving a series of lectures from time to time. It was at the conclusion of one of the series of Chaffee's highly technical lectures on vacuum tubes to the Radar school last winter that he was jokingly presented with a be-ribboned shovel by his bewildered students. For several days he proudly displayed the gift until its significance suddenly struck him and today that shovel has disappeared from among Professor Chaffee's trophies.

"Like Radar but Isn't"

Probably most important of Chaffee's present activities is his secret War Department Research project which has been under way for some time. "In fact," said Chaffee, "things have progressed along so well that several of the devices have already received official tests which turned out generally very satisfactory." Production is expected to be started on these devices as soon as some minor mechanical adjustments have been made, Chaffee explained. Although the nature of the project cannot be revealed, it is assumed that it has to do with communication devices.

"However, it's not a device for sending messages back and forth," Chaffee said with an ambiguous smile, "it's more like Radar but isn't Radar." So Well-satisfied was the war Department with Chaffee's work that the contract for the project was renewed in July, and a staff of about 12 men is now doing the research work.

Chaffee's contributions to the training of Uncle Sam's men did not begin with this war. During World War I, Chaffee was a $1-a-year research man for the government and developed a new signaling device and method of directing torpedoes by radio. For many years he has been giving a one-year post graduate course to groups of Naval Academy graduates who, as Chaffee proudly points out, are some of the leading lights in Radar today.

World Famous Experiments

Professor Chaffee's experiments have led him into a variety of fields ranging from the optical research in which he claimed to have heard the eye see by attaching wires to the retina, to implanting electric coils in animals to study nervous responses by remote control. In 1938 Professor Chaffee broke into the news with the development of a new power saving radio broadcasting tube which the New York "Times" heralded as a "triumph of laboratory and mathematical skill over one of the most complex engineering problems of the generation."

Professor Chaffee now holds one of the longest service records at Harvard having taught here since 1912.