Harold R. Kaufman

American physicist

Harold R. Kaufman (born November 24, 1926 - January 4, 2018) was an American physicist, noted for his development of electrostatic ion thrusters for NASA during the 1950s and 1960s. Kaufman developed a compact ion source based on electron bombardment, the "Kaufman Ion Source," a variant of the duoplasmatron, for the purpose of spacecraft propulsion.^[1]

Biography

Born in Audubon, Iowa, USA, in 1926, Kaufman grew up in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.^[2] He trained in electrical engineering during World War II through an electronic technician program in the US Navy. After the war ended, he took a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University.^[3] After college he joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor of NASA, working on turbo jet engines^[4] at the Lewis Research Center (now NASA Glenn) in Cleveland.^[3]

He then moved to a group studying electric space propulsion. After concluding that a Von Ardenne source was insufficient, he developed the electron bombardment source in 1958/1959,^[5] and was responsible for the development of two ion thrusters that were tested in space (SERT-1 and SERT-II missions).^[2]^[6] The Kaufman ion source is now also used for other applications, such as ion implanters used in semiconductor processing.

Kaufman was awarded a Ph.D. from Colorado State University (CSU) in 1970, and an Exceptional Scientific Achievement Award by NASA in 1971.^[3] He joined CSU as staff in 1974, then left academia in 1984 to work at Kaufman & Robinson, Inc., in Fort Collins, Colorado. He invented the end-Hall ion source in 1989.^[7]

In 1991, the AVS awarded him its Albert Nerkin Award.^[8] In September 2016, Kaufman was inducted into the NASA Hall of Fame for his advances in ion propulsion.^[9]

He was a professor emeritus of the CSU department of physics.^[10]

References

^ "In memory: Harold R. Kaufman". Colorado State University. 9 January 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
^ ^a ^b "Albert Nerkin Award Winners". Archived from the original on 2017-01-21. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Dr. Harold R. Kaufman". NASA. September 6, 2016. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
^ "Chapter 6: NACA Research on Hydrogen for High-Altitude Aircraft". Liquid Hydrogen as a Propulsion Fuel 1945-1959, Notes citations #24, #25. NASA. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
^ "Harold Kaufman". Archived from the original on 2010-03-23. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
^ NASA Glenn, "SPACE ELECTRIC ROCKET TEST II (SERT II) Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine (Accessed July 1, 2010)
^ US 4862032A, Kaufman, Harold R. & Robinson, Raymond S., "End-Hall ion source", published Aug 29, 1989
^ "Past Professional Awards". AVS. Archived from the original on January 21, 2017. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
^ "NASA Glenn Inducts Nine Exemplary Employees into Hall of Fame". NASA official site. September 9, 2016. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
^ "Harold R. Kaufman, Chair and Professor Emeritus, Physics". CNS Emeritus/Emerita Directory. Colorado State University College of Natural Sciences. 4 June 2013. Archived from the original on 2010-06-10.