Cold Facts recently surveyed industry professionals about the mentors who had an impact on their careers and the ways they influenced their professional growth. Below are their answers. We invite you participate in the survey. Please email your answers to editor@cryogenicsociety.org. We will publish them in future Cold Facts or online.
1. Who was your most influential mentor? Where and when did you work together?
2. In what ways did he/she help your career?
3. Any additional comments.
Donna Jung, President and CFO, International Cryogenics, Inc., djung@intlcryo.com
1. My father. He was the founder and the president of Cryogenic Associates as well as International Cryogenics.
2. Taught me the many uses of cryogenics in our world and helped me in a predominately male career.
3. Rex Leonard was an inventor and a very good cryogenic engineer.
Dr. Luisa Chiesa, Assistant Professor, Tufts University School of Engineering, luisa.chiesa@tufts.edu
1. It is really hard to decide who my most influential mentor is among all those people who’ve helped me in my career. I would like to mention them all and then focus on the ones that are the most influential: At Fermilab Dr. Mike Lamm and Dr. Sandor Feher (1999-2000); at Berkeley Dr. Shlomo Caspi and Dr. Al Lietzke (2001-2003); at MIT, Dr. Joe Minervini, Dr. Makoto Takayasu and Prof. Jeff Freidberg (2003-2009).
Dr. Minervini and Prof. Friedberg influenced my career decisions and always offered great advice on how to navigate the choices I faced. Dr. Lietzke and Dr. Takayasu provided the most help in becoming the experimental researcher I am today. They helped me the most in the learning process and closely followed my development in my research. In the past six years, I worked most closely with Dr. Takayasu, and I still seek him as a source of advice and support.
2. Dr. Takayasu is the best experimentalist I have ever met in my life. He is a very precise and meticulous researcher. Sometimes his requests regarding our experimental design seemed superfluous or redundant. Over and over again, I was proven wrong when during experiments I found myself thanking him for having thought of all the details.
The success of our research together has a lot to do with his expertise and his deep knowledge of everything that needs to be considered during challenging experiments dealing with high currents, field and cryogenic temperatures. At this point I can only wish to become like him some day.
3. Dr. Takayasu has always been supportive and he still is. I cannot think of a person who cares more about me and my scientific career. We still collaborate and I very often rely on his judgment and advice. He has been and still is a great source of support for me.
He gives me advice on how to organize projects for students, how to plan ahead for future projects, and how to invest in my current research to build the foundation of possible future research.
John Corey, President, CFIC-Qdrive, jcorey@cficinc.com
1. Dave Ullman, professor and graduate adviser, 1977-1980
2. Connections, training
3. Still my best friend!
David-John Roth, Redstone Aerospace, Senior Engineer, Chief Engineer Analyst Group/Kennedy Space Center, david.j.roth@nasa.gov
1. Dr. Thomas M. Flynn. We have been business partners for 25 years in cryogenic consulting and in instructional courses.
2. He taught me good, solid engineering principles, how to write a sound technical paper backed up with valid references, and a lot about how to live an honorable, decent life in general.
3. Best friend I have ever had, can have differences without it getting in the way of work or the real stuff in life. Been all over the world together and we’re still friends.
Dr. Elie Track, Senior Partner, Hypres, Inc., elie@hypres.com
1. Dr. Hollis Caswell (retired), former President and CEO of Hypres, former Chairman of the board of Hypres, former IBM executive, former Unisys executive, former president and CEO of the company Advanced Energy.
2. Provided a good understanding of the unwritten rules of corporate governance and interactions with a board of directors. Inspired how goal-setting and motivation can overcome technical obstacles. Showed how leadership by example is the best route to effective results.
Demonstrated how to distill information from conferences, presentations, etc., to the bottom-line core conclusions and retain only those conclusions without getting distracted by the fluff.
3. Tough guy. Demanded excellence and settled for nothing less. As unpopular as such an attitude can be, it is the inspiration for having people extract their full potential.
Don Spratt, Systems Safety and Mission Assurance Engineer, NASA Kennedy Space Center, Donald.Spratt-1@nasa.gov.
1. Mr. Tom Duncan – Lockheed Martin Aerospace, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida 08/1990 to 04/1994
2. Tom had a great deal of influence on my career development as a Centaur MEC Systems Mechanical Engineer responsible for technical surveillance of TIV Major Element Contracts (MEC) launch operations associated with the Centaur upper stage airborne and ground cryogenic and hypergolic propellant systems as well as Pneumatics, Environmental Control Systems (ECS) and Structural and Hydraulic Systems.
He provided me with the guidance to provide technical and management leadership in assuring that assigned MEC activities and those of supporting agencies were conducted so as to assure mission success, meet schedule objectives and minimize resource impacts.
He also guided me in ensuring that requirements, procedures, plans and processing activities and anomalies/resolutions were properly identified, coordinated and implemented among program organizations/participants.
3. The best boss I have ever had!
Michael Wagner, Instrument/Optics Technical Team Supervisor, W.M. Keck Observatory. Tronfxr@aloha.net
1. Sidney Arakaki at the United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope (UKIRT), 1997-2001
2. Sidney taught me to never assume, always log, cryogens are predictable, and liquid helium is very special.
3. I learned more from Sidney in the short time we worked together than in all of my years on the job and in the classroom. He had a unique way of showing me how little I really knew and at the same time made me want to know more.
John Vandore, Managing Director, Cryox Ltd., john@vandore.com.
1. No single one. Collected from several mentors over long period of time. They were all men.
2. They gave me approaches or techniques for dealing with situations or problems. One was an ace negotiator.
3. Over time, I feel I’ve accumulated a library of lessons which I enjoy passing on in turn.
Donald Gubser, Superintendent, Materials Science and Technology Division, Naval Research Laboratory, donald.gubser@nrl.navy.mil
1. Dr. Robert Hein, 1969-1991 at the Naval Research Laboratory
2. He taught me to be careful with my measurements, reasonable with data interpretation, and above all honest in my claims.
3. He was a very supportive person.
Lou Salerno, Chief, Instrument Technology Branch, NASA, CSA Board President, Louis.J.Salerno@nasa.gov
1. Dr. Mario Zanotti was my most influential mentor. I never worked with him directly but he was a Vice President of Paramount Studios and essentially my brother for 35 years. He was trained as an architect in Italy and held an interdisciplinary PhD from Stanford University. His field was mathematics and statistics, and in his spare time he tuned racing motorcycles and was very successful in that.
2. Mario had an uncanny insight into the truth and he taught me to look beyond what was said and examine the factual evidence to draw a conclusion. As Mario often told me, “History is made up of facts and statistics. What people believe really doesn’t matter.”
3. Mario was not only an exemplary mathematician, he had good common sense and was a kind and generous man to his wife, son, and friends.
I am very fortunate to have known Mario and I strongly believe that I would not have accomplished a quarter of what I have, either personally or professionally, had I not had the opportunity to know him.
The big advantage of knowing Mario was that I could be absolutely certain that any advice he gave me was only motivated by a true concern and not any material gain on his part whatsoever. It’s not possible for me to honestly say that about many people.
Al Covel, Mechanical Designer, Arthur D. Little, alcovel@comcast.net
1. Robert Lunn. We worked at Arthur D. Little Inc.
2. Helped in areas of budgets, direction of business and engineering.
3. Great advice.
