George Hatsopoulous was never a ChemE- but he did hail from MIT.  Where he earned his degrees in mechanical engineering.  And, he did start a most interesting company- as a spin-off from MIT- the Thermo Electron Corporation.

Thermo Electron’s operations were based upon his PhD thesis- the development of the thermo-electron engine.  That engine is capable of converting heat directly into electricity.   And, Hatsopoulos’ major interest was thermodynamics, a course that is often shared between 2 and 10 (Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, using the numerical codes used by MIT folks).

Thermo Electron decided early on that it needed to develop a team to develop the first artificial heart.   And, it stole one of my classmates to head up that effort. (A lot of this work was being done in concert with another Massachusetts firm- Avco Everett.- founded by the brother of Adrian Kantrowitz. MD of SUNY Downstate and Detroit Sinai heart fame [Arthur Kantrowitz, PhD].) Interestingly, the power supply for the Thermo Electron artificial heart was to be nuclear energy!

(By the way, most folks passed by the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) that was implanted in Francis McKeon, whose heart had failed.  With the Thermo Electron device implanted and assisting his virtually moribund heart, he was allowed to go home.  Instead, the world paid attention to Bob Jarvik’s [Jarvik-7] implantation in Barney Clark- even though Clark (and many others) died after a few months.  Oh, yeah- the LVAD is still a significant device!)

Eventually, the heart research and production group was spun off from Thermo Electron.  Which continued to sell their LVAD’s at about $ 50K apiece- a price that didn’t make any  insurance companies flinch, because the devices worked.

These business spin-offs were Hatsopoulos’ normal process.  He hired the smartest and the best folks at his firm and had them address difficult problems.  Once they had solutions, their groups would be spun off from the mother firm.

Hatsopoulos continued to lecture at MIT, teaching students about the love of his life- thermodynamics. (He published a textbook:  Principles of General Thermodynamics in 1965.  He also co-authored papers in economics with Paul Krugman and Larry Summers.  That effort came about when he began studying why the Japanese businesses were outperforming their US counterparts. )  Oh- his daughter and granddaughter both studied mechanical engineering at MIT!

Hatsopoulos retired from the firm in 1999. And, by then, it operated in 23 countries with some 24,000 employees!  The scope of the firm was huge- ranging from medical devices to environmental control system to bomb detectors- even  biomass electrical generation.

Seven years later, he was saddened to see his baby merged into Fisher Scientific (one of the largest scientific supply firms at the time) to form Thermo Fisher Scientific- one of the largest biotech firms in the world.   So, at the age of 79, he started yet another firm.

Hatsopoulos was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and was awarded the John Fritz Medal, occasionally called the “American Nobel Prize in Engineering”.  (Remember- there are no Nobel Prizes awarded for engineering.)

Have you bought my book yet?  So you can do some real tax planning- before the year is over?  (I can’t believe so many folks think they can adjust their finances in February, as they get ready to file their taxes, for the year that ended!)  There still is time to get my special bonus (described here) if you buy the paperback version of my book ($8.49)

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