Arthur Kantrowitz
Encyclopedia
Arthur Robert Kantrowitz (October 20, 1913 – November 29, 2008) was an American
scientist
, engineer
, and educator.
Kantrowitz grew up in The Bronx
, and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School
. He earned his B.S., M.A. and, in 1947, his Ph.D. degrees in physics
from Columbia 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 at Cornell University
for the next ten years, meanwhile he founded the Avco-Everett Research Lab (AERL) in Everett, Massachusetts, in 1955. He developed shock tube
s which were able to produce the extremely hot gases needed to simulate atmospheric re-entry from orbital speeds and thereby solved the critical nose cone re-entry heating problem which accelerated the development of recoverable spacecraft. He was AERL's director, chief executive officer, and chairman until 1978 when he took on a professorship at Dartmouth College
. From 1956 to 1978 he also served as a vice president and director of Avco Corporation.
Kantrowitz's interdisciplinary research in the area of fluid mechanics and gas dynamics led to contributions in the field of magnetohydrodynamics
and to the development of high-efficiency, high-power lasers
. He first suggested a system of laser propulsion
to launch bulk payloads into orbit, using energy from ground-based lasers to increase exhaust velocity and thereby reduce the propellant-to-payload mass ratio.
His early research included supersonic
diffusers and supersonic compressors in the early 40's, which has since been applied to jet engines. He invented the total energy variometer in 1939, used in soaring planes, and is the co-inventor of an early scheme for magnetically contained nuclear fusion
, patent application, 1941. In 1950, he invented a technique for producing the supersonic source for molecular beams http://article.pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/ppv/RPViewDoc?issn=1480-3291&volume=48&issue=6&startPage=927; this was subsequently used by chemists in research that led to two Nobel Prize
s.
In the 1960s and 1970s, he led the design and development at AERL of the first intra-aortic balloon pump
. The balloon pump is a temporary cardiac assist device which has been used worldwide on three million people. The device was used on his own failing heart.
Another contribution to science was the stagnation-point flow experiment in which processes of initial interaction of fresh flowing blood with an artificial surface can be directly visualized under a high-power microscope. This technique has become an important method for experimentally studying this vital interaction and led to a variety of circulatory prostheses, including the artificial heart.
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 assess the state of knowledge in scientific controversies of importance 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.
According to Jerry Pournelle "We could have developed all this [i.e. large scale commercial space development] in the 60's and 70's, but we went another path. Arthur Kantrowitz tried to convince Kennedy's people that the best way to the Moon was through development of manned space access, a von Braun manned space station, and on to the Moon in a logical way that left developed space assets. That didn't work, because Johnson's support of the Moon Mission was contingent on spending money in the South: the real objective was the reindustrialization of the South. The Moon mission itself was a stunt."
Kantrowitz was 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 (honorary), American Physical Society, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and member of the National Academy of Engineering
and National Academy of Sciences
and International Academy of Astronautics. In 1953-1954, he held both Fulbright and Guggenheim
Fellowships at Cambridge and Manchester Universities.
Kantrowitz was 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 served on the Board of Advisors for the Foresight Institute
, an organization devoted to preparing for nanotechnology
.
Kantrowitz held 21 patents and wrote or co-authored more than 200 scientific and professional papers and articles. He also co-authored Fundamentals of Gas Dynamics, 1958, Princeton Univ. Press.
Kantrowitz died at age 95, November 29, 2008, while visiting relatives in New York. He had suffered a heart attack
on the previous day.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
, engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
, and educator.
Kantrowitz grew up in The Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School
DeWitt Clinton High School
DeWitt Clinton High School is an American high school located in the Bronx, New York City, New York.-History:Clinton opened in 1897 at 60 West 13th Street at the northern end of Greenwich Village under the name of Boys High School, although this Boys High School was not related to the one in Brooklyn...
. He earned his B.S., M.A. and, in 1947, his Ph.D. degrees in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. During his studies at Columbia, Kantrowitz started working as a physicist, in 1936, for the NACA
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was a U.S. federal agency founded on March 3, 1915 to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958 the agency was dissolved, and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and...
, work he would keep for ten years. He went on to teach at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
for the next ten years, meanwhile he founded the Avco-Everett Research Lab (AERL) in Everett, Massachusetts, in 1955. He developed shock tube
Shock tube
For the pyrotechnic initiator, see Shock tube detonatorThe shock tube is an instrument used to replicate and direct blast waves at a sensor or a model in order to simulate actual explosions and their effects, usually on a smaller scale...
s which were able to produce the extremely hot gases needed to simulate atmospheric re-entry from orbital speeds and thereby solved the critical nose cone re-entry heating problem which accelerated the development of recoverable spacecraft. He was AERL's director, chief executive officer, and chairman until 1978 when he took on a professorship at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
. From 1956 to 1978 he also served as a vice president and director of Avco Corporation.
Kantrowitz's interdisciplinary research in the area of fluid mechanics and gas dynamics led to contributions in the field of magnetohydrodynamics
Magnetohydrodynamics
Magnetohydrodynamics is an academic discipline which studies the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids. Examples of such fluids include plasmas, liquid metals, and salt water or electrolytes...
and to the development of high-efficiency, high-power lasers
Carbon dioxide laser
The carbon dioxide laser was one of the earliest gas lasers to be developed , and is still one of the most useful. Carbon dioxide lasers are the highest-power continuous wave lasers that are currently available...
. He first suggested a system of laser propulsion
Laser propulsion
Laser propulsion is a form of beam-powered propulsion where the energy source is a remote laser system and separate from the reaction mass...
to launch bulk payloads into orbit, using energy from ground-based lasers to increase exhaust velocity and thereby reduce the propellant-to-payload mass ratio.
His early research included supersonic
Supersonic
Supersonic speed is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound . For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C this speed is approximately 343 m/s, 1,125 ft/s, 768 mph or 1,235 km/h. Speeds greater than five times the speed of sound are often...
diffusers and supersonic compressors in the early 40's, which has since been applied to jet engines. He invented the total energy variometer in 1939, used in soaring planes, and is the co-inventor of an early scheme for magnetically contained nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is the process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, or "fuse", to form a single heavier nucleus. This is usually accompanied by the release or absorption of large quantities of energy...
, patent application, 1941. In 1950, he invented a technique for producing the supersonic source for molecular beams http://article.pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/ppv/RPViewDoc?issn=1480-3291&volume=48&issue=6&startPage=927; this was subsequently used by chemists in research that led to two Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
s.
In the 1960s and 1970s, he led the design and development at AERL of the first intra-aortic balloon pump
Intra-aortic balloon pump
The Intra-aortic balloon pump ' is a mechanical device that increases myocardial oxygen perfusion while at the same time increasing cardiac output. Increasing cardiac output increases coronary blood flow and therefore myocardial oxygen delivery...
. The balloon pump is a temporary cardiac assist device which has been used worldwide on three million people. The device was used on his own failing heart.
Another contribution to science was the stagnation-point flow experiment in which processes of initial interaction of fresh flowing blood with an artificial surface can be directly visualized under a high-power microscope. This technique has become an important method for experimentally studying this vital interaction and led to a variety of circulatory prostheses, including the artificial heart.
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 assess the state of knowledge in scientific controversies of importance 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.
According to Jerry Pournelle "We could have developed all this [i.e. large scale commercial space development] in the 60's and 70's, but we went another path. Arthur Kantrowitz tried to convince Kennedy's people that the best way to the Moon was through development of manned space access, a von Braun manned space station, and on to the Moon in a logical way that left developed space assets. That didn't work, because Johnson's support of the Moon Mission was contingent on spending money in the South: the real objective was the reindustrialization of the South. The Moon mission itself was a stunt."
Kantrowitz was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Astronautical Society, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (honorary), American Physical Society, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and member of the National Academy of Engineering
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering is a government-created non-profit institution in the United States, that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...
and National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
and International Academy of Astronautics. In 1953-1954, he held both Fulbright and Guggenheim
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
Fellowships at Cambridge and Manchester Universities.
Kantrowitz was 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 served on the Board of Advisors for the Foresight Institute
Foresight Institute
The Foresight Institute is a Palo Alto, California-based nonprofit organization for promoting transformative technologies. They sponsor conferences on molecular nanotechnology, publish reports, and produce a newsletter....
, an organization devoted to preparing for nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
.
Kantrowitz held 21 patents and wrote or co-authored more than 200 scientific and professional papers and articles. He also co-authored Fundamentals of Gas Dynamics, 1958, Princeton Univ. Press.
Kantrowitz died at age 95, November 29, 2008, while visiting relatives in New York. He had suffered a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
on the previous day.