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Memorial Tributes Volume 17 (2013) / Chapter Skim
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LOUIS D. SMULLIN
Pages 308-313

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From page 309...
... After a few months in 1936 as a draftsman at Swift Electric Welder Company in Detroit, he worked for two years for the Ohio Brass Company, in Barberton, conducting and analyzing impulse tests on transmission-line insulators at high voltage. He also operated a radio-interference testing station, subjecting transformer bushings to voltages up to 150 kV.
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From page 310...
... Then, in 1947, he returned to MIT to organize and head the Microwave Tube Laboratory in the interdepartmental Research Laboratory of Electronics. Later he joined the newly formed Lincoln Laboratory, a federally funded off-campus MIT laboratory, as head of Division 4 (Radar and Weapons)
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From page 311...
... His group's work on high-temperature plasmas helped define the subsequent international effort on fusion energy. In 1962 he led a group that bounced a laser beam off the moon and detected the reflection in a project they whimsically called "Luna See." A year later, his laser radar observations of the upper atmosphere were found to be consistent with the theory that the Earth continually receives small meteors that do not burn up but instead fragment into smaller particles that eventually settle to earth.
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From page 312...
... During his later career, as elder statesman, Lou produced a series of short, thoughtful unpublished positions on such topics as undergraduate engineering education, national energy policy, continuing education, and the professional status of engineers. He was a member of the IEEE Economic Analysis Committee in 1971.
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From page 313...
... People in his research group -- colleagues, students, technicians, and support staff -- appreciated the annual tradition of time with Lou and Ruth at their vacation home on Cape Cod. Many of his students viewed him as a father figure and kept in touch long after graduation.
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