John M. Carpenter

John M. "Jack" Carpenter (June 20, 1935 - March 10, 2020) was an American nuclear engineer known as the originator of the technique for utilizing accelerator-induced intense pulses of neutrons for research and developing the first spallation slow neutron source based on a proton synchrotron, the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source (IPNS). He died on 10 March 2020.

Education

Carpenter earned the Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Science at Pennsylvania State University in 1957 and the Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Michigan in 1958 and 1963, respectively. His dissertation is titled Prediction and Measurement of Neutron Chopper Burst Shapes.

Career

Following completion of his Ph.D., Carpenter took a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Michigan Institute for Science and Technology in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from 1963 to 1964. In 1964 he joined the UM faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering; he was promoted to full professor in 1973. Internationally known as "Dr. Spallation," he helped develop other sources, including the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) Multiprogram Research Facility, the European Spallation Source in Sweden; and smaller scale sources at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source in the UK, the Kō Enerugī Kasokuki Kenkyū Kikō (KEK) Neutron Science Laboratory (KENS) in Japan, the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and the Swiss Spallation Neutron Source (SINQ) in Switzerland. In 1977 he and colleagues Rex G. Fluharty of LANL, Motoharu Kimura of Japan, and Leo C. W. Hobbis of the UK cofounded the International Collaboration on Advanced Neutron Sources (ICANS), a forum for collaborating on neutron research and innovative neutron systems. and Elements of Slow-Neutron Scattering: Basics, Techniques, and Applications with Chun-K. Loong.

Carpenter associated with the AES Division of the Advanced Photon Source,

Awards and recognition

Formal recognition of Carpenter's contributions include: Regents of the University of Michigan, Rackham Graduate School Faculty Recognition Award, 1967, University of Chicago Distinguished Performance award, 1982, for development of the IPNS, Ilya Frank Prize, 1998, awarded by the Joint Institute for Neutron Studies at Dubna, Russia for his role in the development of the solid methane moderator, Fellow of the American Nuclear Society, Fellow of the American Physical Society, Fellow of the Neutron Scattering Society of America, Engineering Alumni Society Merit Award from the University of Michigan, 2006, Clifford Shull Prize, 2006, sponsored by the Neutron Scattering Society of America, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2011 "for distinguished service to the materials sciences community by original innovation of pulsed spallation neutron sources and instrumentation for research using neutron scattering facilities."