- Arthur Kantrowitz
Arthur R. Kantrowitz (born 1913) is an American
scientist ,engineer andeducator .Kantrowitz earned his B.S., M.A. and, in 1947, his Ph.D. degrees in
physics fromColumbia University . During his studies at Columbia, Kantrowitz started working as a physicist, in 1936, for the NACA, work he would keep for ten years. He went on to teach atCornell University for the next ten years, meanwhile he founded theAvco-Everett Research Lab (AERL) in Everett, Massachusetts, in 1955. As explained below, theshock tube ,high temperature gases ,nose cone , andheat transfer all became synonymous with his name.He was AERL's director, chief executive officer, and chairman until 1978 when he took on a professorship atDartmouth College . From 1956 to 1978 he also served as a vice president and director ofAvco Corporation .In a nation that has looked to the skies and beyond for nearly a century, the work of Dr. Arthur Kantrowitz has placed him as a forerunner in the achievement of aviation and space goals. His interdisciplinary research in the area of fluid mechanics and gas dynamics has made him a pioneer in the field of
magnetohydrodynamics and has been applied to fields as disparate as thereentry of space vehicles , the development of the high-energylaser and the development of theintra-aortic balloon pump , a cardiac assist device credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives. He first suggested using ground-based lasers for launching bulk payloads into orbit, referred to aslaser propulsion .His early research produced incredible ingenuity: his work on
supersonic diffusers and supersonic compressors in the early 40's has since been applied to jet engines; he invented thetotal energy variometer in 1939 used in soaring planes; he is the co-inventor of magnetically containednuclear fusion , patent application 1941; and he invented the supersonic source formolecular beams in 1950 of which two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry were based.Dr. Kantrowitz, as an advocate of the separation of science and technology from political or ideological concerns, first proposed in 1967 the creation of an Institution for Scientific Judgment, commonly referred to as the Science Court, to settle
scientific controversies as they relate to public policy. He further developed the Science Court as its Task Force Chairman in President Ford's Advisory Group on Anticipated Advances in Science and Technology, 1975-1976.Kantrowitz is a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences , American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Astronautical Society, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (an honorary fellow), American Physical Society, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and member of theNational Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences and International Academy of Astronautics. In 1953-1954, he held bothFulbright andGuggenheim Fellowships at Cambridge and Manchester Universities.Dr. Kantrowitz is an honorary trustee of the University of Rochester, an honorary life member of the Board of Governors of The Technion,and an honorary professor of the Huazhong Institute of Technology, Wuhan, China. Kantrowitz also serves on the Board of Advisors for the
Foresight Institute , an organization devoted to preparing fornanotechnology .Kantrowitz holds 21 patents and has authored or coauthored more than 200 scientific and professional papers and articles and co-authored Fundamentals of Gas Dynamics, 1958, Princeton Univ. Press.
References
* cite web | title=Biographies of Aerospace Officialsand Policymakers, K-N | work=NASA History Division | url=http://history.nasa.gov/biosk-n.html | accessdate=2006-08-15
External links
* [http://www.foresight.org/Updates/Background4.html The Weapon of Openness] regarded as one of the best articles on why
freedom of speech is a good thing.
*http://www.astronautix.com/astros/kanowitz.htm
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