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Society of EMC Engineers (INDIA) | ||||||||||||||
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Dr CARL E BAUM
- Dhiraj Kumar Singh, Bangalore |
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In Brief: Carl Baum, mentor to many, took his last breath peacefully on December 2, 2010 in Albuquerque, NM. Carl 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, CA in 1962, 1963, and 1969 respectively. Following his B.S., he received his commission in the Air Force and was stationed at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory at Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, NM. He served from 1963 until 1971 as an officer, and then accepted a civilian position and retired as a Senior Scientist in 2005. Since his retirement from USAF, he was a Distinguished Professor in the Dept. of ECE, the University of New Mexico. This article is a memoriam of the architect of EMP phenomenology, Transient Electromagnetic, Singularity Expansion method for Target Identification and his association with LRDE. Early Days: Born to Mr. George, a construction Engineer (Air Conditioning), little Carl changed his schools every year because of frequent relocation of his father. During school days Carl was very much interested in piano, Composition, directing etc, but his father wanted him to study Engineering and he won it. Carl got admission call from all the elite universities of USA like MIT, CalTech, NotreDame, thinking Electrical Engineering as closest to musical instruments, he decided to pursue Electrical Engineering. After finishing masters MS from Caltech, he joined Air force Weapons Research Lab (AFWL), Kirtland Airbase, Albuquerque, and NM. There were two major research areas in AFWL, EMP and Laser. Carl was assigned EMP area because of his good Microwave Engg. and Mathematics background during university courses. Carl designed various EMP Simulators for AFWL during his starting carrier like ALECS (for Missile testing) 1966, ARES 1967 and many more worldwide. During 1963 to 1970,he extensively worked in the less known area of Transient measurement and developed various special purpose antennas for measuring EMP in nuclear and Non-nuclear environment. Professional Credentials: During his military career, he was awarded the Air Force Research and Development Award and the Air Force Nomination to Ten Outstanding Young Men of America. In a career that spanned five decades, this remarkably creative engineer introduced innumerable new concepts in mathematics, electromagnetic theory and system design, many of which remain the standards of excellence today. From his earliest designs in EMP sensors and simulators to the latest developments in high-power microwave and ultra-wideband antenna and system design, Dr. Carl Baum’s research has remained ever on the forefront of technology. His advances in EM theory have left an indelible mark and a lasting legacy on the technical world and have led to much of what we do today in EMP, HPM, and Target ID. His scientific contributions were prodigious. He has written innumerable technical notes, articles, books, and presentations and was the editor of the Note Series that has published state-of-the-art research results for the past 45 years. He received the Richard R. Stoddart award of the IEEE EMC Society (1984), and the Harry Diamond Memorial Award (1987), the AFSC Harold Brown Award (1990), and the Air Force Basic Research Award (Honorable Mention) in 1999. In addition, he has received 5 Best Paper Awards from the AMEREM/EUROEM Awards Committee, and he and his research team were honored as an AFOSR Star Team for 2000-2002 and received the 1st annual R. Earl Good Award from AFRL (2004) for their work in target identification. He was named an IEEE Fellow in 1984, an EMP Fellow in 1986, and the first Air Force Research Laboratory Fellow in 1996, but the honors that meant the most to him came in July of 2004 when he was bestowed with an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering by Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany during EUROEM 2004 and received a special honor from his colleagues in Russia for his lifetime of achievements. He received the IEEE John Kraus Antenna Award (2006) and also the Electromagnetics Award from IEEE (2007). He was a member of Commissions A, B, & E of the U.S. National Committee of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) and established the SUMMA Foundation which sponsors various electromagnetics-related activities including scientific conferences, publications, short courses, fellowships, and awards. He has led EMP short courses and HPE workshops around the globe. Dr. Baum was an active organizer of scientific conferences and workshops that bring together researchers from all over the United States and the world to share the latest in electromagnetic research When not putting his new ideas in mathematics and electromagnetic (EM) into new technical notes or organizing meetings, Dr. Baum enjoyed playing the piano and creating his own musical compositions, many of which have been heard at the biennial AMEREM and EUROEM conferences. His compositions can also be heard at one of the many churches in Albuquerque that host the annual concerts of the Albuquerque Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and even at his own church where he used to be the choir director. Twenty-three of these compositions have been recorded and are available on CDs just for the asking. Carl is survived by his two nephews and sister-in-law, George, Spencer, and Martha Baum of Albuquerque. LRDE Connection: In the autumn of 1989, Summa Foundation organized an intensive short course on High Power Electromagnetic in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Among the herd of young professionals, who attended the course, Dr. Baum could spot some of the ignited minds who could understand the intricacies of transient electromagnetic and its implications. One among the spotted mind was, Dr D C Pande of LRDE, who could establish a technical rapport with SUMMA foundation in taking formal and informal Consultation. Dr. Pande’s inquisitiveness to understand the field of high power electromagnetic turned Dr. Baum to be his friend and Mentor. This lead to inception of research in the area of Transient and High Power Electromagnetic in the country under leadership of Dr. D C Pande. This mentor and mentee relationship had helped India to developed Indigenous EMP Simulator for Hardness assurance testing of Vehicle mounted Systems as per MIL-STD461D and now a much faster one as per MIL-STD461E. Author’s Connection: Author was having brief & meaningful association with Dr. Baum since 2005,when his visited LRDE to deliver his talk on High power Electromagnetics. His critical remarks were indispensable in designing Indigenous EMP Sensors and Antenna for EMP Simulator at LRDE. Author has thoroughly enjoyed discussing with Dr. Baum on various interdisciplinary technical issues, geo-political, socio-political and Global religious issues and found him a “Knowledge Bomb”. He was a truly gifted personality and philanthropic. Most of his remunerations were put in SUMMA foundation, which supports young students to take up projects in the area of Electromagnetic. He never took remuneration for his post retirement position of Emeritus Research Professor at University of New Mexico, USA, since 2005.He never stopped thinking; inventing and writing till his last breath and is obvious by the fact that he did a course in china in Nov 2010. One line for him author thinks is “Ultimate Knowledge machine with exemplary passion for Applied Electromagnetic”.
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