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Director, Maglev 2000
Dr. Gordon Danby is a Director of Maglev 2000
and the Danby Powell Maglev Technology Corporation, where he also
serves as Vice-President of Operations. He retired as a Senior Physicist
at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), where he worked since 1957
on the theory and experimental development of accelerators and magnetic
detectors for the study of basic properties of matter. He participated
in the early operation of the accelerator and later played a lead
role in bringing out the first external primary proton beam. He
studied accelerator resonance and nonlinear optical properties,
devising new methods to improve intensity and performance.
Dr. Danby, with Dr. James R. Powell, invented super-conducting
magnetically levitated trains known as maglev in the early 1960's.
The Japanese National Railway (JNR) recognized the significance
of their invention and embarked on what has become more than two
billion dollars in study and construction investment. Recognizing
that the Japanese system is based upon their invention, Danby and
Powell were invited to be keynote speakers at the dedication of
the Yamanashi system in April 1997.
Danby, with Powell, continue to work on Maglev in America. Their
latest designs will result in the first economically viable, environmentally
friendly, high-speed ground transportation that is comfortable and
safe for passengers and will also accommodate freight, with moderate
construction and operation costs.
Dr. Danby's concepts were used for the electromagnetic lattice
design of the world's most powerful accelerator located near Chicago.
He also pioneered superconducting magnetics, building the first
large system, which operated successfully for many years as part
of an accelerator. The New York Academy of Science has honored him
for his many contributions. He was a member of a historic Nobel
Prize winning experiment, which studied the properties of neutrinos.
Dr. Danby is also a pioneer of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
His concepts formed the basis for one of the world's first commercially
successful medical scanners. The results of Dr. Danby's work with
MRI is an industry-wide shift away from costly, claustrophobic tube
style super-conductor MRI machines to faster, open, patient friendly
and cost competitive machines. MRI, already recognized as the diagnostic
mode of choice for many ailments, will ultimately become more effective,
accessible and widely used because of Dr. Danby's work.
Dr. Danby has worked on low cost scanners, which will allow affordable
mass screening for breast cancer and other applications. He has
also been involved in building the world's largest precise superconducting
magnetic energy storage ring which he will measure fundamental particle
magnetic moments to one-tenth-part-per-million accuracy.
Dr. Danby, together with Dr. Powell, was awarded the Franklin Institute
'Medal 2000 for Engineering' for their Maglev inventions. Previous
Franklin Medal awardees include Nikolai Tesla, Charles Steinmetz,
and Albert Einstein.
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