Fred Paul Partus

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Fred Paul Partus
Dr. Fred Paul Partus.jpg
American Inventor Dr. Fred P. Partus
Born (1943-04-20) April 20, 1943 (age 82)
Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.
Education Rutgers University
Tulane University (Ph.D.)
Occupation(s)Inventor, Engineer
Known forContributions to optical fiber manufacturing; Engineering Materials Achievement Award (1983)

Fred Paul Partus (born April 20, 1943) is an American inventor and engineer known for his significant contributions to the development of optical fiber manufacturing and rocket engine diagnostics.

Contents

Early life and education

Fred Paul Partus was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on April 20, 1943. He was a mechanical engineering student at Rutgers University, where he was named to the Term Honors list. [1] He received his Ph.D. from Tulane University in 1971. [2]

Career

Doctoral Research with NASA

Dr. Partus's doctoral dissertation at Tulane University, "The Sampling and Analysis of Tracer Gas in the Combustion Chamber of a Liquid Rocket Engine," was sponsored by a grant from NASA. [3] His research on gas composition was subsequently cited by other scientists in the field. A 1973 NASA-sponsored report on gas velocity near a liquid rocket injector face, for example, referenced Dr. Partus's dissertation for its foundational data on gas composition. [4]

Optical Fiber Development

After receiving his doctorate, Dr. Partus joined Western Electric in 1971. [2] As a Senior Engineer, he was a key contributor to the landmark Atlanta Fiber System Experiment of 1976, a project that tested a complete lightwave digital transmission system under field conditions and proved the feasibility of fiber optic technology. [5] The significance of the project was such that The Bell System Technical Journal dedicated a substantial portion of its July–August 1978 issue to a collection of papers on the experiment's design, components, and results. [5] [6] The experiment's foundational importance is still noted in modern academic research. [7]

As part of this featured collection, Dr. Partus co-authored the paper "Preform Fabrication and Fiber Drawing by Western Electric Product Engineering Control Center," which detailed the manufacturing processes for the optical fibers used in the system. [8] This work was considered foundational to the field and was still being cited in major review articles more than a decade later. [9]

His research continued through the 1980s, with work on topics such as improving the bandwidth of optical fibers. [10] He holds numerous patents in the field [11] and his collaborations included work with John B. MacChesney and James W. Fleming, Jr. [12] [13]

Awards and recognition

In 1983, Partus, along with his colleagues Donald E. Procknow and John B. MacChesney from Western Electric and Bell Telephone Laboratories, received the Engineering Materials Achievement Award from ASM International. The award recognized their "development of materials processing technology capable of producing low optical loss, silica waveguide fibers, permitting introduction of lightwave systems into telecommunications applications." [14]

References

  1. ↑ "HONOR STUDENT" (PDF). The Belleville Times-News. March 17, 1966. p. 20.
  2. 1 2 "Contributors to This Issue" (PDF). The Bell System Technical Journal. 57 (6): 1892. July–August 1978.
  3. ↑ Partus, F. P. (1971). The Sampling and Analysis of Tracer Gas in the Combustion Chamber of a Liquid Rocket Engine (Doctoral Dissertation). Tulane University. NASA-CR-127515.
  4. ↑ Boylan, D. M.; O'Hara, J. (1973). Gas Velocity and Temperature Near a Liquid Rocket Injector Face (Technical report). Tulane University. NASA-CR-121100.
  5. 1 2 Jacobs, Ira (July–August 1978). "Atlanta Fiber System Experiment: Overview". The Bell System Technical Journal. 57 (6): 1717–1721. Bibcode:1978BSTJ...57.1717J. doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1978.tb02121.x.
  6. ↑ Kerdock, R. S.; Wolaver, D. H. (July–August 1978). "Atlanta Fiber System Experiment: Results of the Atlanta Experiment". The Bell System Technical Journal. 57 (6): 1857–1879. Bibcode:1978BSTJ...57.1857K. doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1978.tb02131.x.
  7. ↑ Jiang, Jing (November 2021). A Study on Applications of Optical MIMO Technology to Space Division Multiplexing Transmission Lines via Optical Path Switches (PDF) (Doctoral Dissertation). Waseda University. p. 79.
  8. ↑ Myers, D. L.; Partus, F. P. (July–August 1978). "Preform Fabrication and Fiber Drawing by Western Electric Product Engineering Control Center" (PDF). The Bell System Technical Journal. 57 (6): 1735–1744. doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1978.tb02123.x.
  9. ↑ Walker, Kenneth L. (November–December 1990). "Directions in Optical Fibers". AT&T Technical Journal. 69 (6): 92–100. Bibcode:1990ATTTJ..69...92W. doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1990.tb00489.x.
  10. ↑ Ritger, A. J.; Stone, F. T.; Partus, F. P. (1982). "Improving the bandwidth of optical fibers made using modified CVD". Optical Fiber Communications, Technical Digest. Vol. TUEE4. pp. 20–21.
  11. ↑ "Patents by Inventor Fred P. Partus". Justia Patents. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  12. ↑ "United States Patent: 4,462,818". Justia Patents. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  13. ↑ "United States Patent: 4,909,816". Justia Patents. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  14. ↑ "Engineering Materials Achievement Award" (PDF). ASM International. p. 5. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
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