A Quest for Our Cosmic Origins

The First Three Days

Edwin L. Kerr, Ph. D.

Copyright © 2010 Edwin L. Kerr

Introduction

Chapter 1: Moses Foresaw Three Discoveries

Summary of the rest of “The First Three Days

Design and Creativity

Creationism that Scientists Can Accept

Appendix D:  About the Author

Academic preparation

Ph. D. in physics 1971 from New York University

M. S. in physics 1968 from New York University

B. S. in electrical engineering 1964 from Columbia University

B. A. Magna cum laude 1964 from Washington and Lee University

Postdoctoral studies:  77 semester hours in Spanish, Greek, Hebrew, and theology, at Denver Seminary and Latin American Bible Seminary in San José, Costa Rica.

Professional Employment

Invited Profesor, Universidad de Sevilla, Facultad de Física, Departamento de Electrónica y Electromagnetismo, Grupo de Microondas, from November 1990 through October 1991.

Member of the Technical Staff, NASA, Jet Pro­pulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 1986 to 1989.

Associate Professor of Physics, Azusa Pacific University, 1985 to 1987.

Profesor Asociado de Física, Universidad de Costa Rica, 1975 to 1982.

Associate Research Physicist, Perkin-Elmer Corporation, 50 Danbury Road, Wilton, Connecticut 06897, from 1964 to 1973

Languages

Artificial languages:  FORTRAN, BASIC, and other programming languages

Natural languages:  First language:  English.  Full fluency in Spanish for teaching, reading, writing, and conversation.  Ability to read articles in my specialty and get around as a tourist in French and German.  Studies in Biblical Greek and Hebrew.  Some knowledge of Russian.

Publications

“An Integral Sunshade for Optical Reception Antennas,” Telecommunications and Data Acquisition Progress Report, 42-95, (15 Nov 1988), pp. 180195

“Shutters and Slats for the Integral Sunshade of an Optical Reception Antenna,” Telecommunications and Data Acquisition Progress Report, 42-95, (15 Nov 1988), pp. 196201, with C. W. DeVore.

“An Integral Sunshade for an Optical Reception Antenna,” Optical Engineering, 30, (Number 9, 1991), pp. 13721381

“Architectural design of a ground-based deep-space optical reception antenna,” SPIE Proceedings 1059:  Space Sensing, Communications, and Networking, Monte Ross and Richard J. Temkin, editors, (1989), pp. 103110.  Pre­sented at the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers OE LASE `89 Conference in Los Angeles, (17 Jan 1989).  Augmented version in Opti­cal Engineering, 30, (Number 4, 1991), pp. 446451

“A Near-Earth Optical Communications Terminal with a Corevolving Planetary Sunshield,” Telecommunications and Data Acquisition Progress Report, 42-91, (15 Nov 1987), pp. 133140; Augmented version published in Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 42, (1989), pp. 497500.

Fraunhofer Filters to Reduce Solar Background for Optical Communications,” Telecommunications and Data Acquisition Progress Report, 42-87, (15 Nov 1986), pp. 4855.  Augmented version in Optical Engineering, 28, (Number 9, 1989), pp. 963968

Strawman Optical Reception Development Antenna (SORDA),” Telecommunications and Data Acquisition Progress Report, 42-93, (15 May 1988), pp. 97110

“La propagación del haz gausiano en un medio dieléctrico con inhomogeneidad radial parabólica y cuártica,” (“Propagation of a Gaussian Beam in a Dielectric Medium With Parabolic and Quartic Radial Inhomogeneity”), Ciencia y Tecnología, 3, (1979), pp. 2734.

“Estudio teórico del autoenfocado del rayo láser en vidrio por medio de la electrostricción,” (“Theoretical Study of Electrostrictive Laser Self-Focusing in Glass”), Ciencia y Tecnología, 2, (1978), pp. 219226.

“The Alphaphone—A Method for Measuring Thin-Film Absorption at Laser Wave­lengths,” Applied Optics, 12, (1973), pp. 25202527

“Surface and Coating Absorption Measurement with an Alphaphone,” Laser-Induced Damage in Optical Materials: 1973, A. J. Glass and A. H. Guenther, editors, (National Bureau of Standards, Boulder, Colorado, 1973), pp. 189193.

“Filamentary Tracks Formed in Transparent Optical Glass by Laser-Beam Self-Focusing.  III. Filament Formation,” Physical Review A, 6, (1972), pp. 11621171

“Track Formation in Optical Glass Caused by Electrostrictive Laser Beam Self-Focusing,” Dissertation Abstracts International, 32, (1972).

“Electric Stress and Laser Surface Damage,” IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, QE-8, (1972), pp. 723724

Electrostrictive Self-Focusing of Picosecond Laser Pulse Trains,” IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, QE-7, (1971), pp. 532533

“Filamentary Tracks Formed in Transparent Optical Glass by Laser-Beam Self-Focusing.  II. Theoretical Analysis,” Physical Review A, 4, (1971), pp. 11951218

Electrostrictive Laser Beam Focusing in Glass and Small-Scale Track Formation,” Damage in Laser Materials: 1971, A. J. Glass and A. H. Guenther, editors, (National Bureau of Standards, Boulder, Colorado, 1971), pp. 6175.

“Transient and Steady-State Electrostrictive Laser Beam Trapping,” IEEE Journal of Quan­tum Electronics, QE-6, (1970), pp. 616621

“A Simple Algorithm for Fast Real-Time Generation of Pseudorandom Poisson Inte­gers with Rapidly Varying Means,” Proceedings of the IEEE, 57, (1969), p. 2088, with R. E. Hufnagel

“Laser-Beam Self-Focusing and Glass Damage Caused by Electrostrictively Driven Acoustic Waves,” Special Techni­cal Publication 469, American Society for Testing and Materials, (Philadelphia, 1969), pp. 2342.

“The Laser Illuminated Absorptivity Spectrophone:  A Method for Measurement of Weak Absorptivity in Gases at Laser Wavelengths,” Applied Optics, 7, (1968), pp. 915921, with J. G. Atwood.

Patents and Prizes

Method and Apparatus for Measuring Thin Film Absorption at Laser Wavelengths, U.S. Patent 3 811 782, 21 May 1974

Gas Analyzer, U.S. Patent 3 727 050, 10 April 1973.

Laser-Excited Spectrophone, U.S. Patent 3 659 452, 2 May 1972, with J. G. Atwood

Microphone, U.S. Patent 3 433 959, 18 March 1969, with J. G. Atwood

Certificate of Recognition and NASA Prize for “An Integral Sunshade for an Optical Reception Antenna,” 25 August 1989; Described as a “Compact Sunshade for Telescope Antenna,” in NASA Tech Briefs, 14(6), June 1990, pp. 58, 60.

 “Laser Altimeter for Mars Sample Return Mission,” Jet Propulsion Laboratory Interoffice Memorandum 331-86.6-270, 18 November 1986, and “Laser Pushbroom Altimeter for Mars Sample Return,” Jet Propulsion Laboratory Interoffice Memorandum 331-86.6-279, 5 January 1987.  These two memos were preliminary designs for the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, part of the Mars Global Surveyor, in use in Mars orbit since 15 September 1997.