Jim Meyers plays with lasers and airplanes

Although it seems as if it was yesterday instead of 40 years ago since I sat on the Quadrangle in the June heat watching a few classmates retrieving a beer from under their black robes and listening to some VIP telling us to go forth and conquer. What he didn't realize was that we were listening about as much as the Thinker was – it was just too hot.

The story actually began five years before when I tagged along with several of my buds on a journey to Speed School to take the entrance exam. Although I really wanted to be a physicist, the thought that I would not have to take real English as an engineering student was a big plus. Jumping ahead by two years for my next big decision – Where to co-op? I was intrigued by this new government agency called the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Went to the co-op office to ask if it was possible? Possible? Not only was it possible, I had my choice of Lewis Research Center, Johnson Spaceflight Center, or Langley Research Center. Well in another of those well though-out decisions – Cleveland was too cold, Houston was too expensive, guess it was time to go to Langley in Hampton, Virginia.

After four co-ops at Langley, the Assistant Division Chief of the Instrument Research Division wanted to know what I was going to do after graduation. I said that I was thinking about graduate school. He replied: WRONG! You are coming back here to work and we will send you to graduate school. Now how could I argue with that?

Those co-ops had a side benefit – a senior project. My mentor at NASA wanted me to work on this new instrument for measuring flow velocity in wind tunnels – Laser Velocimetry. Unfortunately the deal fell through because U of L did not have a NASA grant, so the equipment could not be transferred to me. At that point Prof. Leo B. Jenkins came to the rescue. Since I was the only person at the University who had any experience with lasers, he wanted me to build a Laser Laboratory for Speed School. Oh yes, here is 90-percent of the EE equipment budget, and you will be expected to teach the professors about lasers and techniques such as laser velocimetry, interferometry, and holography. How could I turn that down?

When I returned to Langley after that hot day in June, I was told that I had unfinished business – develop laser velocimetry as a flow diagnostic tool. After 40 years I am still trying to complete this unfinished business.

What a great task to be handed. I got to work with lasers, optics, electronics, computers, software, wind tunnels, aerodynamics and neat airplane models. It also entailed the development of theory, Monte Carlo simulations, and electronic and optical systems. My team's research resulted in significant advances in the state-of-the-art that was recognized and adopted by the international community. I have been honored by the number of invited lectures and journal articles I have presented, serving as a member on several advisory committees to international conferences and a reviewer for a number of international journals. A few years ago I received the high honor of being invited to author a chapter in the Springer Handbook of Experimental Fluid Mechanics – the only contribution from NASA. Along the way I have authored over 90 referenceable publications, a couple of patents, Langley Inventor of the Year Award, and was the recipient of the R&D-100 Award. But along with the freedom to develop engineering solutions from theory to hardware to flow field measurements afforded by NASA, the friendships that I have developed with researchers around the world are the high points of my career.

It is said that college teaches you two things: How to think, and Where to look for the information you need. I feel that Speed School added a third – The tricks of the trade. Having professors teaching all my courses provided the insight needed for a career in research and development. I have tried to pass these insights on to all the students that I have mentored over the years – from high school scholars to post docs. After all, that is what NASA is all about – reaching for the stars.

Speed School taught Jim Moore to be fearless

Speed taught me to be fearless. As all students can attest, the curriculum at an engineering school is rigorous, demanding, challenging, and at times intimidating. To succeed in engineering, one has to learn to face down complex problems, dissect them into their component elements, and solve them. Learning how to do so is the essence of what an education at Speed is all about. In the process of facing the challenges of engineering school, I began to realize that problems in the "ordinary" world no longer intimidated me.

When I began my career at McDonnell Douglas Missile Systems, I was faced with a myriad of technical and political issues. In the 1980s, I worked on the deployment of an incredibly complex weapons system – nuclear-armed cruise missiles – to Europe at the height of the Cold War. I can't begin to describe the technical challenges that we faced, compounded by the logistical difficulties of fielding such a system in an operating environment where we were not particularly welcome. There were many late nights and long hours, solving tedious, difficult technical issues – but I relished all of that, and I never once feared that our problems were insurmountable. Speed taught me to be able to think like that.

When I started my own company in the 1990s, I was faced with another set of challenges. Perhaps I was a bit naïve, but I never really doubted that my fledgling enterprise would succeed. It did succeed, and fifteen years on, I'm very glad that I was able to muster the courage to try. Without my education at Speed, I know that I would never have made the attempt. I'll always be grateful for the way in which my five years at Speed shaped my life.