James E. Faller

"... during the past 20–30 years, the subject of has—as a result of advances in measurement technologies—been transformed from a chiefly theoretical endeavor that explored beautiful theorems, involving the and equations, to an experimental science—a science that has come of age as one can now make real-time measurements at the levels at which geophysical happenings are taking place. And absolute gravimetry (along with very long baseline interferometry, global positioning satellites, satellite ranging, etc.) was and is contributing to this revolution."

"Determinations of the fit into the oftentimes-unappreciated area of physics called precision measurement—an area which includes precision measurements, and . The determination of big G—a measurement which on the surface appears deceptively simple—continues to be one of 's greatest challenges to the skills and cunning of s. In spite of the fact that, on the scale of the Universe, big G's effects are so large as to single-handedly hold everything together, on the scale of an individual research laboratory, big G's effects are so small that they go unnoticed…hidden in a background of much larger forces and noise sources. It is this ‘smallness’ that makes determining the precise value of this (seemingly unrelated to the rest of physics) fundamental constant so difficult."

"He was passionate about JILA and the future of JILA. He was a strong advocate for hiring [a leading researcher in ]. He had a great sense of the qualitative understanding of a lot of physics, especially . I remember talking to him about the design of an experiment and him having good suggestions. He was a big advocate for the instrument shop. I think part of it is because he admired those guys for building and designing things."

"Most physicists will remember Jim Faller for his contributions to ."