Sunday, January 2, 2011

Dr. Carl E. Baum dies

Dr. Carl E. Baum, founder of the Summa Foundation and one of the shining lights of pulsed power research, died December 2, 2010 at the age of 71.  I've mentioned his name before. Among many other achievements, he is notable for being the designer of the famed Trestle (ATLAS-1) EMP simulator at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico.

Carl E. Baum was born in Binghamton, New York, on February 6, 1940. He received his B.S. (with honors), M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, in 1962, 1963, and 1969.

He received the degree of Doktoringenieurs Ehren halber (Dr.-Ing. E.h.) (Doctor of Enginering honoris causa) from the Otto-van-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Germany, in 2004.

He was stationed at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Directed Energy Directorate (formerly Phillips Laboratory, formerly Air Force Weapons Laboratory), Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, NM, from 1963 to 1967 and from 1968 to 1971.

From 1971-2005 he served as a civil servant with the of Senior Scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory. Since 2005 he has been a distinguished research professor at the University of New Mexico, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

You would be hard-pressed to find a paper on electromagnetic pulse or ultrawideband high power signal generation without his name on it somewhere.

You may read his full obituary here.

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