User:Nearlygold/Robert J Baran

Robert Baran, aka Nearlygold, is a former Professional Engineer, schooled to the doctorate level in physics at MIT and Texas A&M Universities. He is now retired but still works in the nuclear physics arena,, viz., majpr contribuor and technical editor – see Research Papers, [A] He also develops real time algorithms employing hedging theory and open position commodity trading [Research, B].

After completing nine years service, most as a commissioned officer, he built a home in Bristol, Texas - a town 56 of residents - where he raised his family - as Baran would say: "just beyond the reaches of the "Big D." meaning Dallas. With his wife, Joyce LeBoeuf, a former resident of Corpus Christi, Texas - and first international Rotary Secretary - Baran raised three children: John, Joey and Patty and in all was father to eight through marriage. Baran counts twenty grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren as of this writing in 2009, revised in 2014.. Professionally Baran was a registered PE - #42407 - in Texas and was also Nationally registered. In south Texas his work was in oil field operations, in teaching and in a limited partnership where he used his Predicode - a program of random variable analysis he developed while attending MIT. While at MIT he was a field engineer and head of Dresser's environmental test laboratory in Houston. In Dallas he worked as a lead proposal designer/writer for OEC's FLIR optics design for the US Army XM-1 tank. He was also UTL's manager of software and writers for the Elint/Comint "Looking Glass" aircraft. He designed FOMMS as topographical designer and consulting engineer to Martin Marietta in Denver as well as being manager of a foreign student-staffed research team at SMU where solar cell technology had its beginning. Not to be slack he was for a time an HVAC design engineer where he was principal designer of systems for the VA center in Waco, Texas, the Plano East Side Highschool, Highland Hills Public Library. He was also principal design engineer for Double E, Inc., where he developed numerous designs of oil field completion apparatus, including a ultra high pressure steam injection method used in Canada.. He is now working on t test and linearizing algorithms - as "especially applied to the nuclear radioactive decay process" - and, experimentally, on charge separation devices. He is also an active commodities trader with associates, e.g., IB Werner Kuster at Ironbeam. Baran, in his earlier working days, was chief engineer responsible for the design and implementation of the Emergency Rocket Communications System, termed 494L; Minuteman Nuclear Weapons Safety Officer, member staff and chief scientist at Mitre Corporation in charge of nuclear hardening of flight systems; experimentalist who first used the Cockroft Walton deuteron accelerator at MIT to verify theoretical predictions of behavior of semiconductor junctions in the fast neutron environment. Baran also designed and built the first Q-Switched high power neodymium laser and authored several papers on the interaction of (simulated) hard x-rays and matter. He has been principally an experimentalist but recent interests are more along theoretical lines (random variable analysis, linearizing algorithm development as a method of testing nuclear decay, … He has contributed many patents. His website, http://www.Biblecubit.com … exhibits his spiritual side. His work on Predicode, nuclear physics, etc.,  is on     http://vintagecomputerlab.com/

CONTENTS Early Life Baran was born in Connecticut and was taken to grow up in a small Victorian village of Richmond Hill, Long Island, NY. He was an avid baseball player and when in his late teens actually was paid to play third base for a minor league team. He also developed a love for hockey and captained an amateur team.

Education Baran was educated at St. Joseph Labre school in Richmond Hill; and at LaSalle Academy where he was instructed by Jesuits. Later he would leave the Catholic faith being baptized by immersion by Brother Johnson of the non-denominational Ferrus, Texas Church of Christ.

He would go on to first City College of New York and thence to the University of Arizona for his BS. Graduate studies leading to the Phd level in physics were to be an integral part of his schooling at MIT and then Texas AS&M (Tucson, AZ) Universities. Military Service Baran initially was a part of the Strategic Air Command, or SAC, and after commissioning was appointed chief SPO technical officer in charge of the development and integration of 494L – the post attack system associated with the cold war.

Writing Baran’s technical and early life is depicted in his published novel “Son of Mechanic, a diary” now out of print. He also managed a 15 man team of software and tech writers for UTL – obtaining contracts with Boeing for NSA/Air Force Looking Glass Aircraft. He alone developed the proposal (which was awarded a large contract) for the infrared night sight used on the XM-1 tank and border of Israel.

Research
Baran has current interests in Charge Separation Devices (electrostatic charge generators) and in a new method of mathematically testing the present assumption of randomness in radioactive decay. His research work includes: ultra high vacuum, 3-dimensional infrared signature analysis, laser simulation of the effects of x-rays on materials and systems, 14 MEV neutron bombardment, interaction of radiation with matter, super saturated steam injection for oil recovery, flat plate mechanics, radiation hardening of oil field down hole equipment, and in the field of perception – authoring an original work in this area.

Writing
Writing: Book, Son of Mechanic; Predicode and the random walk problem and Method of testing nuclear decay (in process).

Research Papers
Mathematical Theory of Perception (supported by Ove Franzen's experimental work at MIT), Harvard University, 1964. Use of infrared (goniometer techniques) to obtain signatures of foreign objects, Mitre, 1965; Building a Neodymium Q-Switched laser and simulation of x-rays, primary and secondary photocurrents, Mitre, 1965; Fast forward current transfer ratio (Hfe) decay in 14.3 MEV bombardment, MIT, 1967; Cockroft Walton Deuteron Accelerator setups and physics, Baran and Winston Gottschalk, MIT, 1968.

[B] PCODE, a pseudo random variable analysis program/algorithm