Professional biography (one-pager)
Current Vita, January 1995.
Henry Kolm is one of the founders of the MIT Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory, an authority on electromagnetic technology with over 30 years of experience, and a recognized inventor, innovator and industrialist. He has been involved in the start-up of ten high technology ventures, and was named Entrepreneur of the Year 1981 by Money Magazine. He was awarded the Peter Mark Medal by the Department of Defense for outstanding contributions to electromagnetic launch technology. In 1994 he was named "Engineer of the Year by the New England Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in recognition of his development of the Magplane system.
Kolm is a founder of Magnion, Thermomagnetics, Sala Magnetics, Piezo Electric Products, Inc., Electromagnetic Launch Research Inc., (now Kaman Electromagnetics Inc.), Magplane Technology, Micromag Corporation, and Kolm Air Transport Inc.. He is Senior Scientist (emeritus) and Lecturer, Dept of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
During World War II, Kolm served with the 20th Armored Division and later with the Intelligence Service, where he was a member of the team which planned the strategic bombing of German industry and of "project paperclip", which brought Wernher Von Braun and his Peenemunde rocket team to the US, along with over 300 other key technologists.
After earning his Ph.D. in Physics from MIT in 1955 (for the first observation of quantized vorticity in superfluid helium), Kolm developed world record electromagnets (both pulsed and continuous), designed the MIT National Magnet Laboratory, and initiated its programs of high field applications. He built the first in-situ niobium-tin superconducting magnet, the first closed-loop supercritical helium cooling system, the first pulsed field metal forming system, and the first superconducting maglev system. He invented high gradient magnetic separation and filtration, the Magneplane system of magnetically levitated transportation (with Richard Thornton), and developed the first practical synchronous electromagnetic aircraft catappults and projectile launchers.
Kolm has consulted extensively to industry and government; he has published three Scientific American articles, about 60 professional papers, made several science films, contributed to several NOVA programs, and is an author of over 30 US patents and their foreign counterpart patents in cryogenic, magnetic and piezoelectric applications, and non-destructive testing (proofloading) of aircraft structures.
Kolm is a member of IEEE, AIP, AIAA, is fluent in French and German; he holds a first degree black belt in Korean Karate, a commercial pilot license with multi-engine, seaplane and instrument ratings, and owns and operates a Navajo Chieftain.
Henry and Elizabeth Cushing Kolm make their home in Wayland, Massachusetts.
PS: Kolm was grounded by a stroke in 1997 and Elizabeth died in 2002
(Continue to Full Professional Biography)
Current Vita, January 1995.
Henry Kolm is one of the founders of the MIT Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory, an authority on electromagnetic technology with over 30 years of experience, and a recognized inventor, innovator and industrialist. He has been involved in the start-up of ten high technology ventures, and was named Entrepreneur of the Year 1981 by Money Magazine. He was awarded the Peter Mark Medal by the Department of Defense for outstanding contributions to electromagnetic launch technology. In 1994 he was named "Engineer of the Year by the New England Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in recognition of his development of the Magplane system.
Kolm is a founder of Magnion, Thermomagnetics, Sala Magnetics, Piezo Electric Products, Inc., Electromagnetic Launch Research Inc., (now Kaman Electromagnetics Inc.), Magplane Technology, Micromag Corporation, and Kolm Air Transport Inc.. He is Senior Scientist (emeritus) and Lecturer, Dept of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
During World War II, Kolm served with the 20th Armored Division and later with the Intelligence Service, where he was a member of the team which planned the strategic bombing of German industry and of "project paperclip", which brought Wernher Von Braun and his Peenemunde rocket team to the US, along with over 300 other key technologists.
After earning his Ph.D. in Physics from MIT in 1955 (for the first observation of quantized vorticity in superfluid helium), Kolm developed world record electromagnets (both pulsed and continuous), designed the MIT National Magnet Laboratory, and initiated its programs of high field applications. He built the first in-situ niobium-tin superconducting magnet, the first closed-loop supercritical helium cooling system, the first pulsed field metal forming system, and the first superconducting maglev system. He invented high gradient magnetic separation and filtration, the Magneplane system of magnetically levitated transportation (with Richard Thornton), and developed the first practical synchronous electromagnetic aircraft catappults and projectile launchers.
Kolm has consulted extensively to industry and government; he has published three Scientific American articles, about 60 professional papers, made several science films, contributed to several NOVA programs, and is an author of over 30 US patents and their foreign counterpart patents in cryogenic, magnetic and piezoelectric applications, and non-destructive testing (proofloading) of aircraft structures.
Kolm is a member of IEEE, AIP, AIAA, is fluent in French and German; he holds a first degree black belt in Korean Karate, a commercial pilot license with multi-engine, seaplane and instrument ratings, and owns and operates a Navajo Chieftain.
Henry and Elizabeth Cushing Kolm make their home in Wayland, Massachusetts.
PS: Kolm was grounded by a stroke in 1997 and Elizabeth died in 2002
(Continue to Full Professional Biography)