Memorial Tributes Volume 16 (2012) / Chapter Skim
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ARTHUR R. KANTROWITZ
ARTHUR R. KANTROWITZ
Pages 124-131
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From page 125... ...
He had been the founder and longtime director of the Avco-Everett Research Laboratory and was professor emeritus at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. Arthur Kantrowitz was born in New York City (in the Bronx)
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From page 126... ...
His dissertation adviser was Edward Teller, and his doctoral research involved the measurement of vibrational relaxation times of carbon dioxide molecules using simple aeronautical instrumentation.
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From page 127... ...
The research was so successful that AERL accelerated the research program on reentry physics, and in 1956 Arthur resigned from his tenured faculty position at Cornell to remain as director of AERL and to become a vice president of Avco. Subsequent research under Arthur's guidance at AERL on shockwave kinetics, heat transfer rates for blunt body stagnation points, and nonequilibrium radiation contributed greatly to further development of ablative heat shields for missiles and later for manned spacecraft, and Avco became a leading producer of heat shields for space applications.
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From page 128... ...
The research expertise at AERL in chemical kinetics and plasma physics and the experimental capabilities in shock tube studies of high-velocity, reacting flow fields proved to be well suited for the nascent field of high-power lasers. After successful development of high-power lasers at AERL, Arthur turned his attention to using the newly developed lasers for rocket propulsion, in which a ground-based laser would be used to move a payload into low-Earth orbit.
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From page 129... ...
He continued to give lectures on gas dynamics, MHD, and lasers, but his primary focus moved to the role of the scientific and engineering communities in the public perception of technology. He proposed a new norm for the scientific community: "Any scientist who addresses the public or lay officials on scientific facts bearing on public policy should stand ready to publicly answer questions not only from the public, but from expert adversaries in the scientific community." To implement this norm, he proposed and tried to develop scientific adversary procedures, known as the "Science Court." In those procedures, anyone making an allegedly scientific assertion that was important for public policy could be challenged to publicly answer scientific questions from an expert representative of
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From page 130... ...
He was both a Fulbright and a Guggenheim fellow, and in 1967 he was presented the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal by President Lyndon Johnson. He was an honorary trustee of the University of Rochester; an honorary life member of the Board of Governors of the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology)
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From page 131... ...
Arthur Kantrowitz was a compassionate and gracious person and was generous to his colleagues and employees. His innovative spirit, visionary instinct, outstanding achievements, and courage in breaking new ground will long be remembered.
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