Lodewijk van den Berg
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| Lodewijk van den Berg | |
|---|---|
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| EG&G Payload Specialist | |
| Nationality | American |
| Born | March 24, 1932 Sluiskil, The Netherlands |
| Other occupation | Chemical engineer |
| Space time | 7d 00h 08m |
| Selection | 1983 NASA Group |
| Missions | STS-51-B |
| Mission insignia |
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Lodewijk van den Berg is a Dutch-American chemical engineer, specializing in crystal growth, who flew on a 1985 Space Shuttle Challenger mission as a Payload Specialist. He was the first Dutch-born astronaut, a fact that is little recognized in the Netherlands because he was a naturalized American and likely no longer a Dutch citizen at the time of flight.[1] He is married and has 2 children.[2] As of 2005, he resides in Florida and works as a chief scientist at the Constellation Technology Corporation.[3]
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[edit] Education and early career
Van den Berg was born on March 24, 1932, in Sluiskil, Netherlands. Van den Berg was educated in the Netherlands where he attended the Delft University of Technology from 1949 to 1961 and earned his Masters degree in chemical engineering.[3] He moved to the United States to continue studying at the University of Delaware, where he took another masters degree, this time in applied science, and then his Ph.D. in 1974, also in applied science.[2]
After he had completed his Ph.D., he was offered a job at EG&G Corporation in Goleta, California, to work on crystal growth. EG&G was a defense contractor of the United States government and dealt with sensitive information and science. In 1975, this required Van den Berg to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.
[edit] Spaceflight
[edit] Selection
[edit] STS-51B
Van den Berg was assigned as Payload Specialist on STS-51B Challenger (April 29–May 6, 1985). STS-51B, the Spacelab-3 mission, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and returned to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California. It was the first operational Spacelab mission. The seven-man crew aboard Challenger conducted investigations into crystal growth, drop dynamics leading to containerless material processing, atmospheric trace gas spectroscopy, solar and planetary atmospheric simulation, cosmic rays, and laboratory-animal and human medical monitoring. By the end of the mission, Van den Berg had traveled over 2.9 million miles in 110 Earth orbits, and logged over 168 hours in space.[2]
Van den Berg has over twenty years of research and management experience in the preparation of crystalline materials — in particular, the growth of single crystals of chemical compounds, and the investigation of associated defect chemistry and electronic properties. where he is responsible for the operation of a crystal-growing facility, which produces various kinds of crystal by vapor transport methods. Van den Berg is a co-investigator on the Spacelab-3 mission Vapor Crystal Growth System (VCGS) experiment. In that capacity, he is responsible for the crystal growth aspects of the VCGS experiment. He has intimate knowledge of VCGS and Fluid Experiment System (FES) hardware, and has participated in all major design and science reviews of those systems. He has broad experience in crystal growth and characterization, including vapor transport, solution, and melt growth techniques. He is an international Authority on vapor growth techniques with an emphasis on mercuric iodide crystals and its application in the nuclear industry as gamma ray detectors.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Van den Berg became a naturalized citizen of the US in 1975. According to Dutch regulations a person automatically loses the Dutch nationality if he voluntarily accepted another nationality before April 1, 2003. van den Berg has stated that as of 2004 he never verified his Dutch citizenship status.
- ^ a b c d Payload Specialist Astronaut Bio: Lodewijk van den Berg. Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, NASA (May 1985). Retrieved on 2008-04-09.
- ^ a b van Engelen, Gert, “Niet Wubbo maar Lodewijk van den Berg was de eerste”, Delft Integraal (no. 2005, 3): 23-26, <http://www.tudelft.nl/live/pagina.jsp?id=2b28a3d0-2131-4a70-a161-e6154cbfb254&lang=nl&binary=/doc/DI05-3-5LodewijkvdBerg.pdf>. Retrieved on 9 April 2008
- ^ De `vergeten astronaut` [documentary]. Netwerk, NCRV and EO. Retrieved on 2008-04-09.
[edit] External links
