Good morning today is Friday June 20th, 2008. My name is Allison Page, I'm with the UW-Madison Oral History Program. This morning I will be interviewing Larry Soltis with the U.S. Forest Products Lab. Mr. Soltis if you could just start by maybe stating your name, provide maybe a spelling, and then kind of talk a little bit about where you were born, when, and some of your early education?

Okay, my name is Lawrence Soltis, S-O-L-T-I-S. I'm originally from Milwaukee. I went to the University of Wisconsin, graduated with a degree in engineering in 1963. And then in 1964 I got a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin and as part of my master's program I worked at the Forest Products Lab as a student, engineering I guess I was classified as. After that I worked as a consulting engineer for quite a few years and then I went out for a PhD at the University of Minnesota. Then I worked for the University of Wisconsin for about ten years and then starting about 1980 I went back to the Forest Products Lab to start working there.

So did you receive your undergraduate degree at UW-Madison?

That's correct.

Okay. How did you decide on the career path that you chose? Was that something you had an early interest in, or did that just kind of develop gradually?

Oh no I had an early interest in it. I saw construction going on when I was, used to walk to school and I thought I'll be part of that so that's how I went into engineering. [pause]

Was there anything in your childhood that kind of prepared you for work at the Forest Products Lab?

Not really, no it just---when I got my master's degree we had to write a thesis and the professor was Professor [Krandall?] at the time, at the University of Wisconsin. He had, he knew people out at Forest Products Lab and he says they have a program where you can do your experimental work at the lab and do your theoretical work at the University, and you end up with a thesis at the end of it. So it sounded like a good deal to me so I did it.