WHO WE ARE
Tau Zero Board Members And Practitioners
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." ~ Margaret Mead
 
 
 
 

BOARD MEMBERS

  • Marc G, Millis, Tau Zero Founder and President
    Cleveland OH, USA
    Day job: Propulsion Physicist, NASA Glenn Research Center

    Marc Millis is a leading international authority on the search for breakthrough methods of spaceflight. Much of this work is comparing various approaches, although Millis has initiated some theoretical work of his own, both inside and outside his day-job. He has produced over 30 technical and management papers, an award-winning website ("Warp Drive, When?"), and recently published: "Making the jump to light-speed" in the National Geographic book: Star Wars - Where Science Meets Imagination (Rodley 2005). In addition to propulsion physics, Millis has designed ion thrusters, electronics for rocket monitoring, cryogenic propellant equipment, and even a cockpit display to guide free-fall aircraft flights. Millis's degrees include a Masters of Science in Physics Entrepreneurship from Case Western Reserve University (2006) and a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Georgia Tech (1982). He is also an alumnus of the International Space University Summer Session (1998). In his free time, Millis enjoys craftsmanship; building award-winning scale models, Halloween costumes, and other mischief. Amidst all this, he enjoys time as a husband and father.
  • Walter de Brouwer, PhD, Tau Zero Fundraising and Entrepreneurial Advisor & 1st Benefactor
    Brussels, Belgium
    Day job: "Serial Entrepreneur," Turing Industries

    Time and CNN have called him a 'serial entrepreneur'. The Sunday Times nicknamed him a 'collateral thinker'. INSEAD identified him as a key entrepreneur for Europe. The Financial Times first referred to him as the Ubernerd, and for the 20th Anniversary of The Wall Street Journal Europe, the paper tapped the brains of four “guru’s” to depict the World in 2023: John Naisbitt (Global Paradox), Bill Ghitis (Dupont), Shai Agassi (SAP) and Walter De Brouwer. In 2005 he earned his Doctorate with a dissertation entitled: The Biology of Language: The Post-Modern Deconstruction and Denarration of Modern and Pre-Modern Grand Narratives. To date Walter De Brouwer is a member of the Licensing Executives society, the Mathematical Society and the National Writers Union (USA). He lives in Brussels and is married with three children.

  • Paul Gilster, Tau Zero Lead Journalist
    Raleigh NC, USA
    Day job: Independent technology writer

    Paul Gilster is a writer who focuses on technology and its implications. He is the author of seven books, including Digital Literacy (John Wiley & Sons, 1997) and Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning for Interstellar Flight (Copernicus, 2005), a study of the technologies that may one day make it possible to send a probe to the nearest star. Gilster actively tracks ongoing developments in areas of interstellar research from propulsion to robotics on his Centauri Dreams website, which is the news forum for the Tau Zero Foundation. In past years, he has contributed to numerous technology and business magazines, and has published essays, feature stories, reviews and fiction in a wide range of publications both in and out of the technology arena. He has for the last twenty years written a weekly column on technology that has appeared in a variety of newspapers and is now based at The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC). Gilster is a graduate of Grinnell College (IA). His six years of graduate work were spent at UNC-Chapel Hill, specializing in medieval English literature.
  • Frank P. Nagorney, Attorney, Tau Zero Legal Council
    Cowden, Humphrey Nagorney & Lovett
    Cleveland OH, USA
 

PRACTITIONERS
In the course of the initial grass-roots collaborations that led to Tau Zero it became evident that finding the best practitioners was as challenging as securing funding. Just as the term practical can take on different meanings depending upon objectives, the term best is also dependant on one's priorities. For this high-gain/high-risk topic, a combination of self-critical rigor with risk-taking vision is paramount. To have rigor and credibility, without risky vision, does not take you into the regime of high payoffs (Anderson, J.L. 1996). Conversely, imagination and risk-taking without rigor might be entertaining, but lacks the self-checking upon which to build reliable progress. When both imagination and honest rigor are present, reliable and revolutionary progress becomes possible. A condition to be considered as a Foundation practitioner is to have published risk-taking or unique, leading-edge contributions via a credible outlet. Furthermore, practitioners must display the kind of impartiality and self-criticality needed to put the good of humanity above self-promotion.

By linking trustworthy practitioners across complementary professions, each can accomplish more. Journalists can have direct access to leading scientists, while the scientists benefit from how the journalists convey their scientific work to the public. Documentary producers gain easier access to leading researchers, while these researchers gain access to the animation and story-telling tools of video. And further, science fiction venues provide the scientists, engineers, anthropologists and sociologists the means to safely toy with outrageous speculations.

 
Affiliation Tau Zero Contributions
  Name   Affiliation   Tau Zero Contributions
           
  Karen Anderson   Life Member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. LA, CA
Widow of Poul Anderson (Poul wrote Tau Zero, the novel).
  Advocate, Networking w/ Science Fiction community
           
           
  Dr. Dana Andrews   Aerospace Engineer
Boeing Phantom works (retired)
Andrews Space, Inc. Chief Technologist
Seattle, WA
  Expert: Space sails and aerospace engineering
           
           
  Dr. Jim Benford   Microwave Sciences, Inc.
1041 Los Arabis Lane
Lafayette, CA 94549
  Expert: Microwaves and Space Sails
           
           
  Dr. Gary Bennett   Aerospace Engineer
NASA (retired)
  Expert: Space nuclear power and propulsion
           
           
  Dr. David Brin   Science Fiction author & futurists   Provoking thought about the future
           
           
  Ian Brown   Free-lance journalist
Edinburgh, Scotland
  Journalist
           
           
  Dr. Jean-Luc Cambier   Propulsion Directorate
Aerophysics Branch
Edwards Air Force Base, CA 93524
  Expert: Advanced Space Propulsion
           
           
  Dr. Brice Cassenti   Associate Professor
Department of Engineering and Science
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
Hartford CT
  Expert: Advanced space propulsion, Mathematics
           
           
  Leonard David   Journalist,
Space.com
  Journalist, networking
           
           
  Dr. Eric Davis   Physicist,
Inst. for Advanced Studies, Austin TX
  Expert: Warp drive studies
           
           
  Dr. Walter de Brouwer  

CEO
European branch of Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop per Child
Brussels, Belgium

  Foundation co-founder, Fundraising, and 1st benefactor
           
           
  Dr. Kathryn Denning  

Assistant Professor, Dept. of Anthropology
York University
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3J 1P3

  Anthropology/ Human History/ Social Context/SETI
           
           
  Dr. Robert H. Frisbee   Aerospace Engineer
NASA Jet Propulsion Lab
Pasadena CA
  Expert: Advanced space propulsion technology
           
           
  Dr. Paul Gilster   Author, Journalist
Raleigh, NC
  Lead Journalist, Author "Centauri Dreams"
           
           
  Dr. Bill Harter   Physicist
U. Arkansas, Phys Dept
Fayetteville, AR
  Expert: Special relativity and wave mechanics educational simulations
           
           
  Dr. Steve Howe   Physicist & Director,
Center for Space Nuclear Studies, Idaho Falls, ID
  Expert: nuclear propulsion and Antiproton use
           
           
  Jonathan Hujsak   Information Technologist
Neotopica Inc.
San Diego CA
  Providing the practitioner-access server and database support
           
           
  Dr. Gerald Jackson   Hbar Technologies, LLC
West Chicago, IL  60185
  Expert: Antimatter and space propulsion
           
           
  Dr. Les Johnson   Aerospace Engineer
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville AL
  Expert: Space tethers and solar sails
           
           
  Dr. Jordin Kare   Physicist and Engineer
Kare Consulting
  Expert: System analysis of interstellar propulsion
           
           
  Larry Klaes   General coordinator for the Columbus Optical SETI Observatory   Journalist & SETI networking
           
           
  Dr. Geoffrey Landis   NASA GRC
Cleveland OH
  Multi-faceted talent: physics, engineering, and science fiction
           
           
  Dr. Michael R. Lapointe   Aerospace Engineer
NASA MSFC, Hunstville
  Expert: electric propulsion, and Physics of electromagnetism
           
           
  Dr. Timothy Lawrence   Dir. Space Systems Research Center
USAF Academy, Colorado
  Networking liaison, propulsion expert
           
           
  Kelvin Long   Physicist/Aerospace Engineer, United Kingdom   Nuclear pulse physics & breakthrough propulsion topics, British Interplanetary Society link
           
           
  Dr. Claudio Maccone   Physicist,
Alenzio Space (retired)
Torino, Italy
  Expert: Relativity, Mathematics, Gravitational lens mission study, & SETI networking
           
           
  Dr. Jordan Maclay   Physicist (retired Univ. IL)
Quantum Fields, LLC
Richland Center, WI.
  Expert: Quantum vacuum energy experiments and theory
           
           
  Dr. Greg Matloff   Assistant Professor of Physics
New York City College
  Expert and author; interstellar probe technology
           
           
  Dr. Frank Mead   Research/Manager (retired)
Propulsion Directorate
Edwards Air Force Base, CA 93524
  Expert: Advanced Space Propulsion (Sponsored "teleportation study")
           
           
  Dr. Bill Meyer   Physicist, NASA GRC and
VP, Scattering Solutions, LLC
Cleveland OH
  Expert: Light scattering experiments applicable for quantum studies, & Mathematica beta tester
           
           
  Marc Millis   Propulsion Physicist   Tau Zero Instigator
           
           
  Frank Nagorney  

Attorney
Cowden, Humphrey Nagorney & Lovett
Cleveland OH, USA

  Tau Zero Legal Council
           
           
  Dr. Gerald David Nordley   Astronautical Engineering Consluting
Sunnyvale CA
  Expert: Advanced propulsion, Interstellar propulsion, Science fiction writer.
           
           
  Dr. Tibor Pacher   Physicist, Freelancer Management Consultant   Networking in Germany & Hungary, Online Library
Lead "peregrinus interstellar"
           
           
  Alexandre Szames   Free-lance journalist, graphic artist
Paris, France
  Tau Zero's leading visual designer (Logo, web pages, web graphics) and journalist, and historian.
           
           
  Dr. Martin Tajmar   Head of Space Propulsion & Advanced Concepts
Austrian Research Centers GmbH – ARC
Austria
  Expert: electric and advanced propulsion, gravitomagnetic effects in superconductors, experimenter
           
           
  Chris Vertonghen  

Information Technologist

Brussels, Belgium

  IT Support (Temporarily Dormant)
           
           
  Dr. Sonny White   Aerospace Engineer
NASA Johnson Space Center, TX
PhD Student, Rice University
  General relativity and "Metric Engineering"
           
           
  Edward Zampino   Reliability Engineer (& Physicist)
NASA GRC
  Special relativity, general relativity, and mathematics
           
 
 
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Last revisions by Marc Millis 2008-Feb-17