In 2007 Creare dedicated its turbo-Brayton laboratory in honor of the late Dr. Herbert Sixsmith (1914-2007). Dr. Sixsmith (fondly known as Herby), completed his 27-year career with Creare in 2006, at the age of 92. The Sixsmith Turbo-Brayton Lab is a state-of-the-art facility utilized for fabrication, testing, and development of reverse-Brayton cryogenic refrigeration technology. Over the course of his life-time Herby advanced and broadened this technology for numerous applications, culminating in the installation of Creare’s reverse-Brayton cryocooler for repair of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Educated at Kilkenny and Trinity Colleges, Herby contributed to the World War efforts by working on the cavity magnetron, a critical device in advancing Allied radar technology. After the war, Dr. Sixsmith was a lecturer at Reading University where he also received his PhD. During that period he invented a gas-lubricated bearing which would later be used in Creare’s reverse-Brayton cryocoolers.

His distinguished career also included employment at the National Bureau of Standards and the Department of Engineering Science at Oxford, and international recognition for his work in cryogenics. A skilled machinist, he ably fabricated complex components for his inventions and delighted all with his extraordinary sense of humor and zest for life.

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