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Gourdine, an African-American
physicist and engineer, became an expert in electrogasdynamics
and developed commercial uses for the technology,
first, as an employee at a research-and-development
firm and later as head of two companies. During his
career he received more than 30 patents.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, on 26 September 1929,
Gourdine was raised in Brooklyn and Harlem. His father,
a painter and a janitor, placed a high priority on
education. Although the senior Gourdine was determined
to teach his son the value of hard work--Meredith
accompanied his father to work each day after school--he
valued education more. According to a 1999 New York
Times article, Gourdine recalled his father’s words.
“My father said, ‘If you don't want to be a laborer
all your life, stay in school.’ The lesson took.”
After finishing high school, Gourdine entered Cornell
University, in Ithaca, New York, where he excelled
as a track-and-field athlete. Gourdine’s athleticism
and focus took him to the 1952 Olympics, in Helsinki,
Finland. He won the silver medal, missing the gold
by a mere inch and a half. The closeness of the contest
haunted him for years. “I would have rather lost by
a foot,” Gourdine once said.
After receiving a B.S. in engineering physics in
1953, Gourdine served briefly as a naval officer before
returning to science as a doctoral student, also in
engineering physics, at the California Institute of
Technology (Caltech) on a Guggenheim fellowship. But
before he earned his doctorate he began working as
a scientist, serving on the technical staff of the
Ramo-Woolridge Corporation, and then as a senior research
scientist at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
After earning his doctorate in 1960, he became a lab
director for Plasmodyne and then chief scientist for
the Curtiss-Wright Corporation.
In 1964, Gourdine borrowed $200,000 from friends
and used it to found Gourdine Systems, a research
and development firm based in Livingston, New Jersey.
In 1973, he founded another company, Energy Innovation,
in Houston, Texas.
Gourdine's companies developed commercial applications
for electrogasdynamics, garnering patents for converting
natural gas to electricity, desalinating sea water,
creating circuit breakers, and for acoustic imaging.
He also invented the “focus flow heat sink,” which
cools computer chips. But Gourdine is best known for
developing the electrostatic precipitator filtration
system, which removes smoke from burning buildings,
fog from airport runways, and, today, allergens and
other particulates from the air of many homes.
In his later years Gourdine suffered from diabetes,
having a leg amputated and losing his sight, but he
remained active as a scientist. While working on his
last project--researching thermal energy for a new
temperature-regulating technology--he suffered several
strokes and died of complications in Houston on 20
November 1998. Gourdine was 69-years-old.
View the patents issued to Gourdine. Dr.
Gourdine's Patents
LINKS:
MIT
Brooklyn
Tech
Time
Magazine
United
States Patent 3582694
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