Enjoying challenges outside of work too.

On my first day at Creare, a colleague offered this introductory assignment, “We need to build the world’s smallest vacuum pump. Would you like to design it?”

The chance to get my hands dirty working on hardware was one of the main reasons I joined Creare. I was tired of writing reports for the bookshelf. But, as my colleague’s question made clear, I was definitely heading into new territory and significant challenge.

My academic background is in physics and nuclear engineering. I greatly enjoyed my previous work, which included designing a widely used computer program for nuclear safety called MAAP, and co-owning an eight-person consulting firm. However, none of my previous experience involved actually building hardware, much less vacuum pumps. From the first day at Creare, the opportunity to push the edge of technology as well as my own capabilities was very appealing.

While apprehensive that the pump project was outside my expertise, I quickly learned that I wouldn’t work alone. I immediately teamed with Creare’s experienced and talented design engineers, electric motor experts, technicians, and machinists to design and eventually build the world’s smallest turbomolecular vacuum pump.

I came to Creare with an experience base of analytical projects that required interdisciplinary knowledge in fields ranging from chemistry, to fluid mechanics, to heat transfer. I was not interested then or now in being the world’s expert on a narrow topic. A comprehensive knowledge of the broad aspects of an engineering problem allows me to see the whole picture, a perspective of critical importance to an engineer working in Creare’s interdisciplinary style. The bonus at Creare is the opportunity to use my interrelated knowledge to create new technology.

My initial assignment on the vacuum pump project is a great example of the interdisciplinary work I enjoy so much. It led me to several new areas, including magnetic field analysis, the fluid mechanics of gas at low pressures, high speed bearing technology, and microprocessors, among others.

As it turned out, we achieved the goal of making the world’s smallest turbomolecular vacuum pump, and I have gone on to tackle new challenges in vacuum pump design. The latest model is only about the size of a C-cell flashlight battery, much smaller than any commercial unit. Although the vacuum pump projects have been particularly successful and long running, they currently take up only about 15 percent of my time. I’m also working on a navigation system for unmanned aerial vehicles, two biomedical engineering projects to improve cancer treatments, a project in optics, and an ultrasound instrument for detecting gas bubbles that cause the bends in scuba divers.

Additionally, I’m involved in a project to solve complex models using clusters of networked computers, and an experimental effort to predict oxygen toxicity in patients undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy. In some of these projects, I am a technical contributor, in others the project engineer, and in others the project director. I really enjoy the wide variety in technical challenges as well as the many hats I get to wear on these projects.

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