Not to indulge in hyperbole, but people who missed the eighth annual Electric Aircraft Symposium will, like the laggards mentioned in Henry V’s speech, “think themselves accurs’d they were not here” (Shakespeare, Henry V, act 4, scene III). After the Friday morning introductions by Dr. Brien Seeley, founder and president of the CAFE Foundation, things immediately went into high gear with the presentation by Dr. Ajay Misra, NASA Glenn Research Center. A member of the Senior Executive Service, he is Chief of the Structures and Materials Division in the Research & Technology Directorate. In this position, Dr. Misra has the responsibility for planning, advocating, coordinating, organizing, directing and supervising all phases of Division research and business activities. His degrees in metallurgy, an MBA degree and a doctorate in materials science and engineering demonstrate the high intellectual skills necessary to manage the 120 employees and 100 contractors in Dr. Misra’s Division. His discussion on “Nano-Magnets and Additive Manufacturing for Electric Motors” …
The Happiest Materials Scientist
According to his NASA biography, “Dr. Ajay Misra, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is Chief of the Structures and Materials Division in the Research & Technology Directorate at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. In this position, Dr. Misra has the responsibility for planning, advocating, coordinating, organizing, directing and supervising all phases of Division research and business activities.” At the fourth annual Electric Aircraft Symposium in Rohnert Park, California in April 2010, Dr. Misra was among the most charming and happiest of presenters – probably because he had so many happy things to talk about. Much of the joy comes from the continuing revelations about the characteristics of carbon and boron nanotubes. They turn out to be absolutely wonderful for thermal, structural, battery, capacitor and motor applications. Dr. Misra’s talk sounded at times like a pitch for a wonder cure-all, but one backed with solid scientific precepts. Boron nitrate nanotubes have better high-temperature characteristics than carbon …