With thanks to Robert Melusky, who posted this nice photo on Fuel Cell Nation's Facebook page.
Here is a nice photograph of the late Jim McElroy posing with a Gemini fuel cell module (container only) made from spare parts after the program ended. All the flight hardware burned up in re-entry. The documents on the table are the original GE manuals that were being discarded along with the parts.
Additional details about Jim's passing are in this post: Jim McElroy, Fuel Cell Pioneer.
Robert Melusky just posted this on Fuel Cell Nation's Facebook page:
It is with a heavy heart that I am posting this. Jim McElroy died Thursday (1/3/2012) after suffering a massive stroke. Jim was one of the true fuel cell pioneers beginning as a young engineer at General Electric and ending active at Bloom Energy and Infinity Fuel Cell and Hydrogen. He was not all that welcoming to his supervisor's suggestion to get into the fuel cell group as he did not want to spend his career designing fuel tanks in aircraft wings! Jim was a key person on the team that placed the first PEM fuels cells for a practical application in the Gemini Space Program and over the years he amassed more than 55 patents in this industry. His fertile mind was active right up until his death, guiding a team of young engineers to implement his truly innovative ideas. He was a remarkable man.
I knew Jim from my time at Giner, where I demonstrated an anode tail-gas hydrogen recovery system (utilizing partial-pressure swing adsorption) for Bloom Energy. Jim was a great guy; I am glad I was able to hear some good GE stories from conversations with him and Giner's Tony LaConti (another old-timer from the GE Gemini program who has now passed away.) We will all miss him greatly.
As mentioned in my last blog post, Friday, October 5, 2012 saw representatives of the two presidential candidates square off in a debate on energy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A recording and transcript of the debate has now been put on-line by E&E TV.
Video of the debate can be accessed here.
The debate transcript is here.
Enjoy!
Friday, October 5, 2012 saw representatives of the two presidential candidates square off in a debate on energy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The debate, sponsored by the MIT Energy Initiative and the MIT Energy Club, was moderated by Jason Pontin, Editor of Technology Review magazine.
Representing President Barack Obama was Joseph Aldy, Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. Governor Mitt Romney was represented by Oren Cass, Domestic Policy Director, Romney for President. The professional questioners included Steve Hargreaves, CNN Money; Bill Loveless, Senior Editor of Platts; and Monica Trauzzi, Managing Editor and Host, E&E TV. Three student questioners were also on stage.
The debate will be broadcast by E&E TV in the near future. Real-time comments could be followed under the Twitter hashtag #mitei.
The best way to report on this debate is to start with a few articles by others that summarize the debate:
I'd like to finish with a few of my favorite gems:
It was a night well spent, even if I didn't learn much new.