Meredith Gourdine
Meredith Gourdine | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 26, 1929 |
| Died | November 20, 1998 (aged 69) |
| Alma mater | Brooklyn Technical High School B.S. Cornell University Ph.D. Caltech |
| Known for | Electrogasdynamics |
| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men’s Athletics | ||
Representing  United States
| ||
 |
1952 Helsinki | Long jump |
Meredith Charles "Flash" Gourdine (September 26, 1929- November 20, 1998) was an American athlete, engineer and physicist.
Education
Gourdine graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School. He earned a BS in Engineering Physics from Cornell University in 1953, where he was selected for membership in the Quill and Dagger society.[1][2][3] In 1960 he earned a Ph.D. in Engineering Physics from the California Institute of Technology while working as a Senior Research Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1958-60.[4]
Career
Scientific career
In 1964 Gourdine founded a research and development firm, Gourdine Laboratories, in Livingston, New Jersey. In 1973 he founded Energy Innovations, a company that produced direct-energy conversion devices in Houston, Texas.[1] The companies developed engineering techniques to aid removing smoke from buildings and disperse fog from airport runways, and converting low-grade coal into inexpensive, transportable and high-voltage electrical energy.[1]
Gourdine was inducted to the Dayton, Ohio, Engineering and Science Hall of Fame in 1994.[2] He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1991 and also served as a Trustee of Cornell University.[2] He was an expert in Electrogasdynamics, the generation of electrical energy based on the conversion of the kinetic energy contained in a high-pressure, ionized, moving combustion gas (e.g., Ion wind).[1] He specialized in devising applications, including electric precipator systems. He also invented the Focus Flow Heat Sink, used to cool computer chips.[4]
Gourdine was granted a total of over 30 U.S. patents.[4]
Athletic career
At the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki he won a silver medal for the long jump, one and a half inch short of Jerome Biffle's golden medal jump.[2]
References
- ^ a b c d "Meredith Gourdine". www.cpnas.org. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
- ^ a b c d "Telluride's Olympians: Meredith "Flash" Gourdine CB50 and Bonnie St. John SP81". Telluride Association. 2018-02-14. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
- ^ "Meredith C. Gourdine - Engineering and Technology History Wiki". ethw.org. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
- ^ a b c "Meredith C. Gourdine | Lemelson-MIT Program". lemelson.mit.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
External links
- African Americans in the Sciences biography plus NYT obituary
- Biography of Gourdine from IEEE
- Lemelson biography
   | This article about a track and field Olympic medalist of the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- American male long jumpers
- Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1952 Summer Olympics
- Olympic track and field athletes of the United States
- Cornell University College of Engineering alumni
- California Institute of Technology alumni
- 1929 births
- 1998 deaths
- Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics
- Brooklyn Technical High School alumni
- African-American engineers
- Engineers from New York (state)
- African-American scientists
- American scientists
- 20th-century American engineers
- American track and field athletics Olympic medalist stubs