Thomas Poulter

Thomas Charles Poulter (born March 3, 1897 in Salem , Iowa , † June 4, 1978 in Menlo Park , California ) was an American physicist , expert on explosions and high pressures, inventor and polar explorer.

His father was a farmer and blacksmith. Poulter studied at Iowa Wesleyan College with the degree in 1923. He was then professor of physics there. In 1933 he received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Chicago . From 1933 to 1935 he was the lead scientist of Richard Evelyn Byrd's Antarctic expedition . His then student James Van Allen built instruments for the expedition. Poulter observed meteors, engaged in seismic exploration and undertook high pressure experiments. In 1926 he became scientific director of the Armor Research Foundation (later the Illinois Institute of Technology ). There he built the Snow Cruisera new kind of expedition vehicle that should also serve as a mobile research station. The Snow Cruiser was used as part of the 1939/40 Antarctic expedition led by Byrd and advised by Poulter. He also developed seismic methods for prospecting in the Arctic (explosions in the air or above the ground) - initially to measure the thickness of glaciers. In total, he made three trips to the Antarctic and 15 to the Arctic. From 1948 he was at the Stanford Research Institute . Here he researched in particular shock waves and detonations, for example for the military, new types of nuclear weapons and oil drilling. At SRI he became Associate Director in 1948 and in 1953 founded a laboratory for explosives and high pressure research, later the Poulter Laboratory . In 1960 he became head of the physics and biology department and dealt mainly with bioacoustics, for example the acoustic orientation of seals. Her Biological Sonar Laboratory was in Fremont Hills , California. He also worked with the University of California Medical School in San Francisco to develop devices that enable the deaf to hear. He died working in his laboratory.

In 1937 he received the Geographic Medal of the National Geographic Society , received two Congressional Medals of Honor for polar research and was an honorary member of the American Polar Society from 1973 . He held around 75 patents. In addition, the Poulter Glacier in Antarctica bears his name.

literature

• Peter Krehl: History of shock waves, explosions and impact, Springer 2009 (with biography)

Web links

• Biography of Carlo Segre