Newsletters: 2004, Issue 3

PSI Presents Its Annual Achievement Awards

An annual tradition at PSI is the announcement of Technical Achievement Awards to our scientists and engineers who have made extraordinary contributions to our customers and in their fields of research during the past year. This year's awards are for contributions to missile defense, chemical laser development and advanced battery technology. We are very proud of the recipients and the honor they bring to our company.

Physical Sciences Inc. is a research and development company with a remarkably diverse set of interests and projects. Previous issues of this newsletter have highlighted our work in the areas of missile defense, homeland security and medical technology. In this issue, we announce the formation of a new group that is taking our optically-based sensing products to a new level of automation and system integration, one of the many initiatives in the company to provide total solutions for real-time process control.

Technical Achievement Awards

The annual PSI Technical Achievement Awards were recently presented in recognition of some of the company's most innovative technical accomplishments during the past year. George Caledonia, PSI's President and Chief Executive Officer, presented the awards to this year's winners.

Kevin White accepts Achivement Award from George Caledonia

Dr. Kevin C. White, Principal Scientist, was recognized for his significant contributions to advanced battery research at PSI. Specifically, Kevin has developed a new cathode material using a conductive polymer-based additive to enhance energy density. He has also utilized electrospinning to fabricate nanofibrous carbon anodes and cathode materials to enhance power density in Li-ion batteries. Kevin is now leading the effort to develop 3-D battery architectures under DARPA sponsorship.

Dominic Stebbins

Fred Lauten

Dr. Fred Lauten, Principal Research Scientist, and Dominic Stebbins, Senior Research Scientist, were honored for their development of a new high temperature matrix composite. They have developed a promising new process for manufacturing high temperature composite materials. Their novel material has been successfully demonstrated to withstand environments with temperatures exceeding 4000°F for extended periods of time, and is a prime candidate for thrust chamber liners in the next generation of hypersonic air-breathing propulsion systems. To further this goal, they have also developed fabrication methods enabling construction of nine foot long combustors for a critical flight program.

Seonkyung Lee, Terry Rawlins and Bill Kessler

Dr. Seonkyung Lee, Principal Scientist, William Kessler and Dr. W. Terry Rawlins, Principal Research Scientists, were honored for their technical achievement in the measurement of small signal gain in an electrically pumped oxygen-iodine laser (ECOIL) system. This is an extremely important result, since ECOIL is a major thrust area for both the Missile Defense Agency and the Air Force. This is the first such demonstration in a subsonic room-temperature flow. Researchers worldwide have attempted to develop an ECOIL for over 30 years without success. The team used a very organized and innovative approach to achieve this result and it has been recognized by Air Force researchers as a crucial confirmation of experiments at the University of Illinois. Their colleagues at Illinois have now demonstrated ECOIL lasing and we anticipate a considerable expansion of our joint activities in this area.

Norman D. Humer, Senior Research Scientist, and Dr. Peter E. Nebolsine, Manager, Innovative Technology, were recognized for their work in supporting the MDA AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense program. They provided both pre-test planning and post-test data analysis. Successful system performance predictions were performed using a physics-based hypervelocity impact model. Their work has been recently presented at the AIAA Missile Defense Conference and the Missile Defense - Sensors, Algorithms and Environments meeting. They also received a Best Paper Award from the AIAA Second Biennial National Forum on Weapons System Effectiveness.

Steve Davis Names SPIE Fellow

Dr. Steven J. Davis was recently named a Fellow of the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE). Fellows are members of distinction who have made significant scientific and technical contributions in the fields of optics, photonics, and imaging. SPIE is dedicated to advancing scientific research and engineering applications of optical, photonic, imaging, and optoelectronic technologies.

Dr. Davis was recognized for specific achievements in the areas of chemically pumped and optically pumped laser systems. He is also well known for the development of ultra-sensitive optical techniques and diagnostics for numerous applications, including gas sensing, process control, and medical applications. In addition, he has developed photonics-based kits for K-12 science education. Many schools use his unique experimental tools to teach color and other optical concepts.

During his 30-year career, Steve has built an impressive record of outstanding achievements. He has published more than 300 technical papers and reports and holds 14 patents. His numerous awards include several Air Force Technical achievement awards, multiple PSI technical awards, and a NASA technical achievement award.

Control and Automation Group

PSI has formed the Control and Automation Group, which is led by Dr. Michael White. This group will focus on military and industrial applications of sensing, control, automation, and information technology.

The Control and Automation Group evolved from an SBIR project that led to the development of a jet fuel monitor that has been installed on a Navy aircraft carrier. Drawing from this application, devices are in development for hydraulic fluid monitoring, process control, and sensor networking.

The group's philosophy is to engage in continual refinement of a modular sensor solution that is applicable to a wide variety of technical challenges. Based on the initial fuel monitoring application, a “standard solution” for electronics packaging, processing architecture, shock hardened optical mounting, optical detectors, Ethernet connectivity, and other system level design elements has been developed.

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