| Biography of W. Van Vorst, Pacific Palisades, CA, USA |
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Professor Van Vorst received his undergraduate education at The Rice Institute (now Rice University), where he earned the B.S. in Chemical Engineering. After one years graduate work, he was awarded the Ch.E. degree, and pursued further graduate study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earned the S.M. in Chemical Engineering Practice there, after which he accepted employment with Northrop Aircraft. His efforts at Northrop were directed toward the design and development of the combustion chamber to be used in a gas turbine engine for aircraft. He was also employed by North American Aviation, working on the design of jet and rocket engines.
After several years of the above, Professor Van Vorst joined the Faculty of Engineering at UCLA. He took a part time appointment in order to pursue study for the Ph.D. degree. After earning this degree, he became a full time member of the Faculty, rising through the ranks to the full professorship. During his time with UCLA, he has also enjoyed visiting appointments at the University of the Philippines, Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia, and Robert College of Istanbul and its successor Institution, the University of the Bosphorous in Turkey.
He also served as a Consultant to the UNESCO and UNIDO in Thailand. Professor Van Vorst became interested in the use of hydrogen as an internal combustion engine fuel in the early seventies, and is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE). His early work resulted in the conversion of two vehicles fueled by hydrogen; in one, hydrogen was stored as a gas under high pressure, while liquid hydrogen was used in the other. Professor Van Vorst has been particularly interested in overcoming public fears of the presumed danger connected with the use of hydrogen--most of which is a holdover from the tragedy of the Hindenburg Airship fire of 1936. He has spoken to numerous groups on the subject, and co-authored the paper, "The Hindenburg tragedy revisited: the fatal flow found" with Addison Bain who pursued the matter zealously after his retirement from the Kennedy Space Center as head of hydrogen programs. The emphatic conclusion is that hydrogen did not cause the tragedy. While Dr. Van Vorst is now Professor Emeritus, his interest in the use of hydrogen continues, and he remains active in the IAHE, as well as the "Clean Air Now" foundation and similar activities. He recently received the Jules Verne Award of the IAHE, and the Lifetime Contribution Award of the UCLA School of Engineering and Applied Science.
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