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PETER STAUDHAMMER
1934–2008
Elected in 1996
“For engineering achievements in space systems,
plasma and microwave processes, remote sensing, instrumentation,
and their application to commercial systems.“
BY GERARD W. ELVERUM
P ETER STAUDHAMMER, whose scientific and engineering
accomplishments in an astonishing variety of science and
engineering fields, both commercial and academic, died of
cancer on January 14, 2008, at his home in La Quinta, California,
at the age of 73. He began his career as a rocket scientist, became
vice president and chief technical officer of TRW, and ended his
career as director of the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical
Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC).
During Peter’s 42-year career with TRW, he held a variety
of technical and management positions. He was chief engineer
and a principal architect of the Apollo lunar descent engine that
soft-landed U.S. astronauts on the Moon. The engine, an entirely
new design (10:1 throttling with storable liquid propellant),
performed perfectly in seven manned missions, including the
first Moon landing and the rescue of Apollo 13. Peter also
pioneered hydrazine-fueled rocket engines, now a standard of
spacecraft propulsion, and developed space instruments for the
exploration of Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The most
notable of these was the Viking Biology Experiment, the first
such instrument to search for life on Mars.
Under Peter’s leadership, TRW’s Central Research
Laboratories created a plasma-based isotope-separation process
and applied it to separating uranium and several transition-
metal isotopes, including palladium, which is now used for
prostate cancer therapy. He directed a broad range of research
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292 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
in space science, solid-state devices, plasma physics, optics and
lasers, and programs in thermonuclear fusion, isotope
separation, fossil-fuel combustion, and energy storage. This
research established new TRW product lines in GaAs (Gallium
Arsenide) microelectronics, SAW(Surface Acoustic Waves)
devices, and high-energy lasers.
In 1986, Peter was named vice president and general manager
of TRW’s Defense Projects Division, where his responsibilities
included managing classified programs of great national
importance involving systems with both space and ground
segments. He was also the first leader of the TRW Center for
Automotive Technology, which applied space and defense
capabilities to advancing automotive product development.
The results were a wide range of performance-, safety-, and
efficiency-enhancing projects that led to new billion-dollar
automotive product lines for electrically assisted steering and
integrated vehicle-stability controls.
In 1993, he was appointed chief technical officer for TRW
Inc., a position that required leadership of strategic technology
planning for TRW’s worldwide force of more than 17,000
engineers and scientists in a huge range of technical disciplines
in space, electronics, information, and automotive systems. Few
people would even have attempted to meet the mental, physical,
and leadership demands of the job. Peter excelled.
During this period, Peter also actively promoted the study
of system engineering and leadership principles in engineering
education. He served on university engineering review
committees at UCLA, UC Riverside, USC, University of
Michigan, and Case Western Reserve University. In 1992, he
was named Alumnus of the Year by the UCLA School of
Engineering.
From 2003 to 2007, as director and chief operating officer of
the USC Mann Institute, Peter provided technical and
managerial leadership for the research, development, and
commercialization of biomedical devices and other technologies.
He was also a member of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Board of Councilors and a research professor in the Department
of Biomedical Engineering. At the same time, he was a consultant
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PETER STAUDHAMMER
to Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Department of Energy and
a member of the General Motors Corporate Technical Advisory
Board.
Peter was born in Budapest, Hungary, on March 4, 1934, to
John and Josephine Staudhammer, the second of five children.
The Central European world into which Peter was born became
progressively darker throughout the 1930s and finally erupted
in World War II. His father, a survivor of seven years in a
Siberian prisoner of war camp during World War I, knew
firsthand the consequences of “liberation” by the Red Army.
Therefore, as the Russian army approached Hungary in 1944,
the family left, amid tanks and bombs, for the relative safety of
Austria. Along with hordes of other displaced persons flooding
Western Europe, the Staudhammers moved on to Stuttgart,
Germany, where they placed their names on the roll of the
International Relief Organization. In 1949, Margaret Zerovean
and the Hungarian Catholic Church in Los Angeles sponsored
their entry to America.
In Los Angeles, Peter finished high school and entered UCLA
in 1952 as a freshman in engineering. He was a research assistant
to Dr. Sam Yuster and Dr. William Seyer, who later became his
Ph.D. advisor. Peter received his Ph.D. in 1957, just five and a
half years after leaving high school, a remarkable achievement
considering the difficult conditions of his pre-university life
and education.
Upon receiving his Ph.D., Peter applied for a position in the
Rocket Motor Injection and Combustion Group, which I headed
at the Cal Tech Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). How fortunate
I was that he accepted the position! In those days, work on
rocket technology at JPL was still pretty primitive. Slide rules
and Freidan calculators were the tools of the trade. Rocket motor
tests were observed through a window in a block wall, and
sometimes propellant flows were controlled with hand valves.
Peter’s experiences at JPL working directly with hardware at
the cutting edge of rocket-motor technology resulted in his
lifelong desire for hands-on participation in projects. That
desire, combined with his outstanding technical capabilities,
led to the brilliant achievements that characterized his career.
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With the planned transfer of the Cal Tech JPL management
contract from the Army Missile Command to NASA at the end
of 1958, the future of rocket technology and development at
JPL was uncertain. In October 1958, Space Technology
Laboratories (STL) had become an independent subsidiary of
the newly formed Thompson Ramo Wooldridge, Inc., with Dr.
Louis Dunn, a former director of JPL, as president. Dr. Dunn
encouraged several of us at JPL with expertise in rocket engines
to join STL (which later became TRW), which Peter and I both
did in early 1959. That was the beginning of our career together
at TRW.
After Peter became an NAE member in 1996, he was
appointed to the NAE Program Committee, which oversees the
planning and execution of NAE programs; he was committee
chair from 1998 to 2003. He also served on the NAE Section 12
Peer Committee in 2000 and was chair for the 2003 election
cycle. Section peer committees evaluate and make candidate
recommendations to the NAE Committee on Membership.
Peter’s leadership led to an appointment on the NAE
Membership Policy Committee from 2003 to 2005, and
subsequently to his becoming a member of the Committee on
Membership from 2004 to 2007. Peter also contributed to many
NRC studies sponsored by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Department
of Defense, U.S. Department of Energy, and NASA. In 2002, he
received the Distinguished Public Service Medal from NASA
for a lifetime of distinguished service to the United States.
“Pete Staudhammer was an engineer’s engineer—a broadly
competent engineer both highly analytical and innovative,”
said Simon Ramo, co-founder of TRW. “He was such a nice
man. Everyone—young engineers and senior experts—would
come to consult him, as did all of the top executives. He will be
greatly missed. The essence of Peter was his deep caring for
people. In his own words, ‘It’s people that you want to bet on,
actually much more than talent and much more than
inventions.’”
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PETER STAUDHAMMER
Peter’s wide range of interests was reflected in his personal
life. He was a devoted follower and supporter of the opera and
symphony. At his home in Lake Arrowhead, he enjoyed boating,
water skiing, and working in his woodshop. A devoted family
man, he took pride in helping his six children achieve success,
and he strove to instill in his grandchildren imagination and
the quest for knowledge.
Peter is survived by his wife, the former Marie Gilman; three
daughters, Debra, Julia, and Christina from his first marriage
to June Fochler; two stepdaughters, Jennifer and Hilary; a
stepson, Stephen; and seven grandchildren. He is also survived
by three brothers, John, Karl, and Fred; and a sister, Josephine
Laue.
Peter is also survived by the inspiration he left in the
memories of hundreds of colleagues, students, and friends. It
was my great privilege to work closely with Peter during his
professional career starting in 1957. What a brilliant mind, and
what a pleasure to be with! He was a supportive friend who
energized my career beyond measure. I will always miss him
and remember him with great respect and fondness.
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