Frederick Kantor

Early life and education Kantor earned his B.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University. For his doctoral thesis, he invented a way to polish the surfaces of an X-ray telescope.

Inventions In addition to his efforts in digital physics Kantor holds numerous patents. The later patents deal with several classes of inventions: Rotary Inertial Thermodynamics; dynamic transport of waste fluids in rivers; and a fiber-optic device for persons with macular degeneration. Another invention, never patented, was a File Content Signature utility that was used by electronic bulletin board operators to identify duplicates.

X-ray telescope

However, the invention with potentially greatest impact at present is his earliest work on "Glancing-incidence radiation focusing device having a plurality of members with tension-polished reflecting surfaces". This patent, available at Google patents clearly shows the concentric glancing incidence design for X-ray collection. Kantor's innovation, the use of surface tension to achieve a super-smooth reflecting surface is at the heart of the proposed NASA Lynx Observatory, which describes the same physical process as "grazing incidence.". Kantor's work, part of his doctoral project at Columbia University, was supported in part by government funding. It was done prior to the Bayh–Dole Act, and Columbia did not seek any patent rights. Subsequent to his patents, designs for a NASA project were developed later by Lockheed Corporation, asserting government use rights to apply the invention. Whether the Lynx observatory will be implemented remains an open question.

Personal life and family Kantor died May 15, 2020. His brother, Paul B. Kantor.,