Gerald J. Posakony

Gerald J. "Jerry" Posakony (May 24, 1925 – May 27, 2017) was an American electrical engineer whose work encompassed medical ultrasound, ultrasonic transducer design, nondestructive testing, phased array ultrasonics, sonochemistry and the inspection of nuclear and industrial equipment. During the early 1950s, he was the lead engineer on an experimental system for producing diagnostic images of structures inside the human body. Posakony subsequently developed ultrasonic inspection systems for nuclear-power components, pipelines, rocket motors, composite materials and radioactive-waste tanks. He spent more than forty years associated with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), retiring as an employee in 1991 but continuing research and consulting work until 2014.

In 2010 he received the John Fritz Medal, an engineering award presented for scientific or industrial achievement.

Early life and education

Posakony was born in Pocahontas, Iowa. During World War II, he served in the United States Navy aboard the submarine . He received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Iowa State University in 1949.

A 1954 Life article illustrated Posakony having his own kidneys scanned with the experimental apparatus, later known as the Somascope. and a 1956 article describing three-dimensional and stereoscopic observation by ultrasound.

Posakony concentrated particularly on ultrasonic transducers and on the electronic circuits used to excite transducers and receive and display their signals. His contributions helped move medical ultrasound from an experimental technique toward a practical diagnostic technology.

Nondestructive evaluation

Posakony later applied ultrasonics to nondestructive evaluation. His work included systems for detecting flaws, cracks, corrosion and changes in material properties where established inspection procedures were unavailable. He also developed a transducer for evaluating aging in Sparrow solid-rocket motors. The inspection allowed older motors to be identified and removed from service before possible failure.

Honors

Posakony was named a Fellow of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing in 1973. His other honors included:

the American Society for Nondestructive Testing's Lester Honor Lecture in 1976; the society's Robert C. McMaster Gold Medal in 1985; the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine's William J. Fry Memorial Lecture Award; the ASTM International Award of Merit; and the 2010 John Fritz Medal.

The citation for the Fritz Medal recognized his work in ultrasonics, diagnostic imaging and nondestructive-evaluation technology. A contemporary IEEE-USA announcement credited him with thirteen patents.

Personal life and death

Posakony was married to his wife, Jane, for 56 years. They had four children and nine grandchildren. He died on May 27, 2017, at the age of 92.

Works

Medical imaging and early instrumentation

Holmes, Joseph H.; Howry, Douglass H.; Posakony, Gerald J.; and Cushman, C. Richard (1954). “The ultrasonic visualization of soft tissue structures in the human body.” Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, 66: 208–225. Howry, Douglass H.; Holmes, Joseph H.; Cushman, C. Richard; and Posakony, Gerald J. (1955). “Ultrasonic visualization of living organs and tissues; with observations on some disease processes.” Geriatrics, 10 (3): 123–128. Howry, Douglass H.; Posakony, Gerald; Cushman, C. Richard; and Holmes, Joseph H. (1956). “Three-Dimensional and Stereoscopic Observation of Body Structures by Ultrasound.” Journal of Applied Physiology, 9 (2): 304–306. Richardson, E. V.; Simons, Daryl B.; and Posakony, G. J. (1961). Sonic Depth Sounder for Laboratory and Field Use. U.S. Geological Survey Circular 450. USGS record.

Ultrasonic engineering and nondestructive evaluation

Posakony, G. J. (1972). “Schlieren Techniques for Showing Ultrasonic Wave Propagation.” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. DOI record. Posakony, G. J. (1974). “Challenges for Electrical Engineering in Ultrasonic Nondestructive Testing.” IEEE Transactions on Sonics and Ultrasonics. DOI record. Posakony, G. J. (1975). “Engineering Aspects of Ultrasonic Piezoelectric Transducer Design.” 1975 Ultrasonics Symposium. DOI record. Zima, G. E.; Pavloff, C.; Posakony, G. J.; and Levy, I. S. (1976). Assessment of Primary Piping Integrity and Leak Development Characteristics for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant. DOE record. Posakony, G. J. (1977). “Generation of a Standards Document for an Emerging Nondestructive Evaluation Technology.” In Nondestructive Testing Standards—A Review. ASTM record. Hildebrand, B. Percy, and Posakony, Gerald J. (1980). “Method and apparatus for energizing an array of acoustic transducers to eliminate grating lobes.” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. DOI record. Busse, L. J.; Becker, F. L.; Bowey, R. E.; Doctor, S. R.; Gribble, R. P.; and Posakony, G. J. (1982). Characterization Methods for Ultrasonic Test Systems. DOE record. Tingey, G. L.; Posakony, G. J.; Morgan, W. C.; Prince, J. M.; Hill, R. W.; and Lessor, D. L. (1982). Nondestructive Evaluation of the Oxidation and Strength of the Fort Saint Vrain HTGR Support Block. DOE record. Posakony, G. J., et al. (1982). Equipment for Nondestructive Evaluation of the Strength of the Fort St. Vrain Core-Support Blocks. DOE record. Posakony, G. J., et al. (1983). Detection of Small-Sized Near-Surface Under-Clad Cracks for Reactor Pressure Vessels. DOE record. Posakony, G. J., et al. (1989). “Four Transducer Ultrasonic Array for Detecting and Sizing Defects in Plate and Pipe Materials.” Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation. DOI record. Posakony, G. J., and Green, E. R. (1990). “Performance of a Broadbanded Ultrasonic Transducer with Coaxially-Mounted, Nondirectional Receiver.” Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation. DOI record. Posakony, G. J., and Green, E. R. (1992). “Performance of a broadbanded ultrasonic transducer with coaxially-mounted, nondirectional receiver.” NDT & E International. DOI record. Posakony, G. J. (1993). “Integrity Assurance of Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines.” Applied Mechanics Reviews. DOI record. Li, Yan; Menon, Suresh M.; and Posakony, Gerald J. (1998). “An Embedded Ultrasonic Wire Waveguide Sensor for In-Process Cure and In-Service Dynamic Response Monitoring of Liquid Molded Composite Parts.” Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation. DOI record. Hildebrand, B. P.; Davis, T. J.; Posakony, G. J.; and Spanner, J. C. (1999). “Lamb Wave Tomography for Imaging Erosion/Corrosion in Piping.” Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation. DOI record. Martin, P. M.; Good, M. S.; Johnston, J. W.; Posakony, G. J.; Bond, L. J.; and Crawford, S. L. (2000). “Piezoelectric films for 100-MHz ultrasonic transducers.” Thin Solid Films. DOI record. Stewart, Charles W., et al. (2001). Expert Panel Recommendations for Hanford Double-Shell Tank Life Extension. UNT/DOE record. Stewart, Charles W., et al. (2003). Independent Review of Tank 241-AY-101 Fitness for Service. DOE record. Pardini, Allan; Taylor, Theodore; and Posakony, Gerald (2008). “Advances in Generation and Detection of Ultrasound in the Field of Nondestructive Testing/Evaluation.” In Ultrasonics. CRC Press record.

Sonochemistry and biological applications

Chandler, Darrell P., et al. (2001). “Continuous Spore Disruption Using Radially Focused, High-Frequency Ultrasound.” Analytical Chemistry, 73 (15): 3784–3789. Greenwood, Larry R., et al. (2003). “Sonoluminescence and multi-bubble cavitation phenomena for selected research and industrial applications.” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. DOI record. Disselkamp, R. S.; Judd, K. M.; Hart, T. R.; Peden, C. H. F.; Posakony, G. J.; and Bond, L. J. (2004). “A comparison between conventional and ultrasound-mediated heterogeneous catalysis: hydrogenation of 3-buten-1-ol aqueous solutions.” Journal of Catalysis. DOI record. Greenwood, Larry R., et al. (2004). “Stable multibubble sonoluminescence.” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. DOI record. Posakony, G. J.; Greenwood, L. R.; and Ahmed, S. (2006). “Stable multibubble sonoluminescence bubble patterns.” Ultrasonics, 44 supplement 1: e445–e449. DOI record. Rector, David R., et al. (2007). “Simulation of ultrasonic-driven gas separations.” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. DOI record. Warner, Cynthia L., et al. (2009). “A Flow-Through Ultrasonic Lysis Module for the Disruption of Bacterial Spores.” JALA: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Automation, 14 (5). DOI record

Liquid-metal reactor imaging

Griffin, Jeffrey W.; Peters, Timothy J.; Posakony, Gerald J.; et al. (2009). Under-Sodium Viewing: A Review of Ultrasonic Imaging Technology for Liquid Metal Fast Reactors. DOE record. Griffin, J. W.; Posakony, G. J.; Harris, R. V.; Baldwin, D. L.; Jones, A. M.; and Bond, L. J. (2011). “High temperature ultrasonic transducers for in-service inspection of liquid metal fast reactors.” 2011 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium. DOI record. Bond, L. J.; Griffin, J. W.; Posakony, G. J.; Harris, R. V.; and Baldwin, D. L. (2012). “Materials issues in high temperature ultrasonic transducers for under-sodium viewing.” AIP Conference Proceedings. DOI record.

Patents and patent applications

A 2010 IEEE-USA account stated that Posakony held thirteen patents. These include:

Howry, Douglass H., and Posakony, Gerald J. “Uni-directional ultrasonic transducer.” US 2,972,068. Posakony, Gerald J. “Calibrated ultrasonic inspection device.” US 3,220,249. Cross, Benjamin T., and Posakony, Gerald J. “Material tester.” US 3,712,119. Posakony, Gerald J. “Ultrasonic contact scanner.” CA 946,503. Posakony, Gerald J.; Hildebrand, B. Percy; and Davis, Thomas J. “Linear transducer array and method for both pulse-echo and holographic acoustic imaging.” US 4,170,142. Hildebrand, B. Percy, and Posakony, Gerald J. “Method and apparatus for energizing an array of acoustic transducers to eliminate grating lobes.” US 4,179,683. Li, Yan, and Posakony, Gerald J. “Measurement of the cure state of a curable material using an ultrasonic wire waveguide.” US 5,804,725. Autrey, S. Thomas; Posakony, Gerald J.; Amonette, James E.; and Foster-Mills, Nancy S. “Photoacoustic method for measuring concentration of chemical species.” US 6,244,101. Autrey, S. Thomas; Posakony, Gerald J.; Amonette, James E.; and Foster-Mills, Nancy S. “Multi-band transducer for photoacoustic detection.” US 2001/0018848. Chandler, Darrell P.; Posakony, Gerald J.; Bond, Leonard J.; and Bruckner-Lea, Cynthia J. “Apparatus and method for ultrasonic treatment of a liquid.” US 6,506,584. Chandler, Darrell P.; Posakony, Gerald J.; Bond, Leonard J.; and Bruckner-Lea, Cynthia J. Continuation patent for “Apparatus and method for ultrasonic treatment of a liquid.” US 7,022,505. Autrey, S. Thomas; Posakony, Gerald J.; and Chen, Yu. “Array-based photoacoustic spectroscopy.” US 6,870,626. Denslow, Kayte M.; Posakony, Gerald J.; Bond, Leonard J.; Diaz, Aaron A.; Alnajjar, Mikhail S.; and Franz, James A. “Device and method for noninvasive ultrasonic treatment of fluids and materials in conduits and cylindrical containers.” US 2009/0038932. Diaz, Aaron A.; Posakony, Gerald J.; and others. “Immersible ultrasonic probe for nondestructive examination and imaging in harsh environments.” US 2019/0094186.