1997 Resume of Thomas L. Wayburn
B.S. in Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering. University of Michigan. June, 1956.
M.S. in Mathematics. Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (CIMS), New York University. June, 1968.
Completed course work for Ph.D. in Mathematics at CIMS. June, 1970. I went on strike to protest the May, 1970, bombing of Cambodia. Although none of the three demands, namely, (i) U.S. out of S.E. Asia, (ii) racism off campus, (iii) war machine off campus, had been met, most of the students meekly filed back into school after an indecently short interval. I did not.
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering. University of Utah. August, 1983. Research topic: Mathematical modeling of complex interlinked distillation columns. This research involves the application of ideas from differential topology to large (sparse) sets of nonlinear equations. Also, a new direct method for solving large sparse sets of linear equations was discovered.
Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi.
Numerous fellowships and scholarships.
NASA-ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship, Stanford-Ames Aeronautics and Space Research Program, 1985
American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), Computers and Systems Technology Division, Ted Peterson Award, 1987. This was for best paper written by a student. (I was a 50-year-old student, so what chance did the competition have! I now reject awards as an undesirable institution.)
Ambassador Programs of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and (separately) the American Chemical Society
Chairman: Optimization and Control Workshop, South Texas Section, AIChE
Chairman: Computer Applications Workshop, South Texas Section, AIChE
Chairman: South Texas Seminar Series, South Texas Section, AIChE
Secretary: Empowerment Committee, South Texas Section, AIChE
Member: Planning Committee, AIChE
Chairman: Future Forum
Member: Energy and Environmental Systems Institute, Rice University
Member: N Crowd (an N-scale model-railroad club). Recently finished my first really fine layout.
Member: Executive Committee of the Harris County Democratic Party, Precinct Chairman, and Poll Judge
Charter Member: Drug Policy Forum of Texas
Numerous speaking engagements in the Houston area, including the Humanists of Houston, Society of Women Engineers, and many others. Numerous letters to the editors of Chemical Engineering Progress, The Houston Post, Time Magazine, and one Op-Ed piece for The Houston Post – all controversial, some resulting in rebuttals and rebuttals of rebuttals. After one such rebuttal, a man called and asked if I would like to write propaganda for his organization – the NRA!
American Policy Institute, Inc., Houston (Executive Director and Founder). 7/93 - present. I make such computations as I am able to make unaided by man or machine concerning a multitude of social problems, but principally concerning energy and the environment. I have written many letters, editorials, essays, and a long book outlining a number of rational social policy positions that are regarded as radical by most critics – who refuse to be swayed by reason, regardless of its irrefragable nature, but who, on the other hand, are never able to find a single consequential mistake in the development of my conclusions. (One critic excoriated me because I had estimated the life expectancy of our sun at 100 billion years rather than 10 billion, which is the number he prefers. This had no bearing on the conclusion.) Please refer to bold type in Research Interests, below.
Consulting chemical engineer. 9/89 - 7/93. Optimization of crude oil processing plant. Research on nonlinear and linear equation solvers.
Prairie View A & M University. Continued my research on candidates for renewable primary high-grade energy technology, of which no proven example exists – contrary to the conventional wisdom, which we know by the frequency of occurrence of the expression “sustainable development”, which I have proved is effectively impossible, unless the terms sustainable and development are to be meaningless.
Chemshare Corp, Houston. Development and coding of algorithms for a large sequential-modular process simulator. Nonlinear and linear equation solvers and computing thermodynamic equilibria of nonideal multicomponent mixtures. 6/87 - 9/89.
NASA-ASEE Faculty Fellowship. Modeling shockwaves from lightning bolts on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Developed model to include radiation effects and wrote software. Summer, 1985.
Clarkson University (Assistant Professor). Research on homotopy continuation methods, expert system for solving nonlinear equations, chemical processes as dynamical systems (bifurcation diagrams, etc.), and original semi-direct methods for solving linear systems. Semi-direct methods employ direct methods to row reduce the diagonal and lower triangular part and iterative methods (extensions of SOR and AOR) for the upper triangular part of sparse matrices. All of this was applied to the solution of distillation problems.
Bechtel Associates (formerly in New York City). Process and equipment design for petroleum, chemical, pharmaceutical and food processing plants. Technical writing. 10/56 - 1/58, 10/63 - 9/67, 4/73 - 8/74
City College of New York (semester system). Spring 1968-Spring 1969. (4 semesters, 6 sections). Instructor: Calculus.
University of Utah (quarter system). Winter and Spring 1980-81. Teaching Assistant: Process design and computer-aided process design. Summer 1981. Instructor: Thermodynamics (2 sections).
Clarkson University (semester system). Fall 1983 - Spring 1987. Assistant Professor: Senior Chemical Engineering Lab, Thermodynamics, Introduction to Computer Programming, Introduction to Complex Design, Senior Chemical Process Design, Introduction to Applied Math.
Prairie View A & M University. Fall 1992, Spring 1993. Adjunct Professor: Senior design course, Conceptual design elective, Senior design projects, Separation techniques. Played a substantial role in getting the chemical engineering department accredited.
Air Reduction Corp. Murray Hill, N.J. 6/56 - 10/56. Experiments to study decomposition of ozone.
Music study, professional music, research in music theory and design of musical instruments. 6/53 - 10/80. Teachers: Lennie Tristano, Joe Morello, Renée Longy, ‘Philadelphia’ Joe Jones, Cozy Cole, Ben Boretz, Stanley Spector. Recorded with Lennie Tristano.
Consultant's Bureau. New York City. 10/61 - 8/63. Part-time and free-lance editing Russian scientific periodicals.
Owner and operator of recording studio. 10/73 - 10/80. Played and recorded noncommercial music.
Quantum theory, especially Aspect experiments. Galois theory. Heterogeneous azeotropic and reactive distillation and other difficult separation problems. Development of homotopy continuation methods for solving nonlinear equations. Direct and semi-direct method for sparse linear systems. Dynamic simulation. Nonlinear dynamics. Optimization and control. Application of expert systems to numerical analysis. Analysis of direct and indirect emergy costs of various standard and sustainable primary energy providers (especially pyrolysis of biomass, i.e., garbage and sewage) and important manufacturing processes. (Emergy, with an m, is a concept, conceived by Prof. Howard Odum, that puts the real worth of things on a firm theoretical basis, cf., my publications or those of Prof. Odum.) Political philosophy based on scientific principles (especially thermodynamics), a book is in progress – hoping for 1996 publication. Volume 1 of my collected essays will be published shortly thereafter.
1. Wayburn, T. L. and J. D. Seader, "Solution of Systems of Interlinked Distillation Columns by Differential Homotopy-Continuation Methods," in Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Foundations of Computer-Aided Process Design, Westerberg, A. W. and Chien, H. H., editors, CACHE (B. Carnahan, University of Michigan) (1984). This is the paper that won the Ted Peterson Award.
2. Seader, J. D., Rafael Chavez C., and Thomas L. Wayburn, "Multiple Solutions to Systems of Interlinked Distillation Columns by Differential Homotopy Continuation," AIChE Meeting, San Francisco, California, November 25-30, 1984.
3. Wayburn, T. L. and J. D. Seader, "Homotopy Continuation Methods for Computer-Aided Process Design," Comput. chem. Engng, 11, No.1 (1987). This paper continues to be referenced frequently by researchers in this field. It has become a classic, although it was not the paper that won the prize.
4. Wayburn, T. L., "An Advanced Microcomputer-Aided Design Project for Freshmen," Int. J. Engng. Ed., 2, No. 5/6 (1986).
5. Chavez C., Rafael, J. D. Seader, and Thomas L. Wayburn, "Multiple Steady-State Solutions for Interlinked Separation Systems," Ind. Eng. Chem. Fundam, 25, 566 (1986).
6. Lin, Wen-Jing, J. D. Seader, and Thomas L. Wayburn, "Computing All Solutions to Systems of Interlinked Separation Systems," AIChE J., 33, No. 6 (1987).
7. Vickery, D. J., T. L. Wayburn, and R. Taylor, “Continuation Methods for the Solution of Difficult Equilibrium-Stage Separation Process Problems”, Paper presented at the Inst. of Chem. Engineers Conference, Distillation and Absorption ‘87, Brighton, England (1987). Also, published in proceedings, publisher forgotten.
8. Wayburn, Thomas L., "A Review of Continuation Methods and Their Application to Separation Problems," Comp. and Sys. Tech. Div. Commun., 11, No. 1 (1988). This is my best paper on homotopy methods.
9. Wayburn, Thomas L., "No One Has a Right To Impose an Arbitrary System of Morals on Others," in Drug Policy 1889-1990, A Reformer's Catalogue, Arnold S. Trebach and Kevin B. Zeese, Eds., The Drug Policy Foundation, Washington, D.C. (1989).
10. Wayburn, Thomas L., "Fallacies and Unstated Assumptions in Prevention and Treatment," Accepted for publication in The Great Issues of Drug Policy, Arnold S. Trebach and Kevin B. Zeese, Eds., The Drug Policy Foundation, Washington, D.C. (1990). See http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/DEBATE/dpf90l.htm.
11. Wayburn, Thomas L., “A Seven-Point Post-Prohibition Drug Policy”, Rejected by 1991 Drug Policy Foundation Symposium after being solicited because it contained some criticism of the Foundation, which is forbidden. See http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/DEBATE/dpf91.htm .
12. Wayburn, Thomas L., “The Separation of the State from the Christian Church: Parts 1, 2, and 3”, The Truth Seeker, 117, Nos. 2, 4, 6 (1990).
13. Wayburn, Thomas L., “The Separation of the State from the Christian Church and the Case Against Christianity”, The Philosophy of Humanism and the Current Issues, Marian Hillar and Frank Prahl, Eds., Humanists of Houston, Houston (1995).
14. Wayburn, Thomas L., “A Look at My Philosophy from the Viewpoint of Proving a Social Theorem”, The Philosophy of Humanism and the Current Issues, Marian Hillar and Frank Prahl, Eds., Humanists of Houston, Houston (1995). This is a cryptic preview of my book and is not recommended.
15. Wayburn, Thomas L., “Availability and Emergy”, Proceedings of Engineering and Architecture Symposium, Prairie View A & M University, Prairie View, Texas (1993).
16. Wayburn, Thomas L., “Expected Value of a Texas State Lottery Ticket”, rejected by American Mathematical Monthly (October, 1995). This is a good paper but not for the AMM. I wonder what to do with it.