Publisher's Synopsis
Stanford S. Penner is a distinguished professor emeritus of engineering physics at the University of California San Diego. During World War 2, he worked at the Allegany Ballistics Laboratory in Cumberland, MD, on rocket developments before returning to the University of Wisconsin, Madison to complete studies for the PhD in physical chemistry and then joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and, after a few years, the faculty of the California Institute of Technology where he was advanced to Professor of Jet Propulsion in the department headed by H. S. Tsien who is now celebrated as the inventor and director of Chinese rocketry in China. A few years later, Th. von Karman arrived from the German University of Aachen shortly before World War 2 to take over as Chair of Aeronautical Engineering at Caltech and select Penner as a primary collaborator. Von Karman's monumental research earned for him the first U. S. National Medal of Science during the Kennedy administration when this award was made for the very first time.
Penner is the author or co-author of about 375 research papers and books on the archival scientific literature of aerospace engineering including especially radiant heat transfer, rocketry, energy supplies and applications, etc. for advanced students in these fields of research. He was the 2009 recipient of the National Academy of Engineering Founder's Award (awarded once per year to a single recipient) and also received numerous other awards from various national and international academies and research prizes from US and foreign societies and honorary entities."
