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Meredith Charles "Flash" Gourdine (September 26, 1929 – November 20, 1998) was an American athlete, engineer and physicist. His nickname, "Flash" Gourdine, is a reference to comic strip character
During the last three years of his Ph.D. program (1958-1960), Gourdine worked as a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After graduation, he worked for Plasmadyne Corporation and Curtis-Wright Corporation, then in 1964, he 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
African Americans in the Sciences biography plus NYT obituaryBiography of Gourdine from IEEEGourdine, Meredith C. ("Flash"), 1954, 1960-1962, Box: 11, Folder: 26. Theodore von Kármán Papers, 10143-MS. California Institute of Technology Archives and Special CollectionsLemelson biography
American male long jumpers Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field Athletes (track and field) at the 1952 Summer Olympics 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) 20th-century African-American scientists 20th-century American physicists 20th-century American engineers 20th-century African-American sportspeople African-American physicists Cornell Big Red men's track and field athletes {{US-athletics-Olympic-medalist-stub
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' adve ...
.
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. In 1960, he earned a Ph.D. in Engineering Physics from the California Institute of Technology on a Guggenheim fellowship.Career
Scientific career
Houston, Texas
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
. 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.
Gourdine was inducted to the Dayton, Ohio, Engineering and Science Hall of Fame in 1994, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1991, was a member of the Black Inventors' Hall of Fame, a member of the Army Science Board
The Army Science Board (ASB) provides advice about army science to senior military leaders. The ASB is a Federal Advisory Committee organized under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. It is the United States Department of the Army senior scienti ...
, and served as a Trustee of Cornell University. 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
Ion wind, ionic wind, corona wind or electric wind is the airflow induced by electrostatic forces linked to corona discharge arising at the tips of some sharp conductors (such as points or blades) subjected to high voltage relative to ground. Ion ...
). He specialized in devising applications, including electric precipitator systems. He also invented the Focus Flow Heat Sink, used to cool computer chips.
Gourdine was granted a total of over 30 U.S. patents.
He was involved in a number of civic groups during his career, including New York Mayor Lindsay's Task Force on Air Pollution, President Lyndon Johnson's Advisory Panel on Energy, and President Richard Nixon's Task Force on Small Business
Athletic career
At the1952 Summer Olympics
The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...
in Helsinki, while he was still an undergraduate student at Cornell, he won a silver medal for the long jump, one and a half inch short of Jerome Biffle
Jerome Cousins Biffle (March 20, 1928 – September 4, 2002) was an American athlete who competed mainly in the long jump, where he was the Gold Medalist at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games.
Biffle was born in Denver, Colorado, and attended Denve ...
's gold medal jump.
References
External links
African Americans in the Sciences biography plus NYT obituary
American male long jumpers Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field Athletes (track and field) at the 1952 Summer Olympics 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) 20th-century African-American scientists 20th-century American physicists 20th-century American engineers 20th-century African-American sportspeople African-American physicists Cornell Big Red men's track and field athletes {{US-athletics-Olympic-medalist-stub