Leonard Reiffel facts for kids

Leonard Reiffel (born September 30, 1927 – died April 15, 2017) was an American scientist, writer, and teacher. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. Reiffel studied electrical engineering before becoming a researcher.

He worked with famous scientists like Enrico Fermi and Carl Sagan. He also worked with scientists from Operation Paperclip, a program that brought German scientists to the U.S. after World War II. Reiffel worked for NASA and the Illinois Institute of Technology. He even won a Peabody Award for his radio show, The World Tomorrow. He invented the telestrator, a tool used to draw on TV screens. Reiffel held over 50 patents for his inventions.

Early Life and Education

Leonard Reiffel was born in Chicago on September 30, 1927. His father, Carl Reiffel, was a silversmith who invented a special slide saxophone. His mother, Sophie Miller, was a school superintendent in Chicago.

Leonard went to Theodore Roosevelt High School. He then earned three degrees in electrical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He studied there from 1947 to 1953.

Reiffel's Amazing Career

Working at Universities and Inventing

Reiffel started his career at the University of Chicago's Institute for Nuclear Studies. There, he helped the famous scientist Enrico Fermi build a large machine called a cyclotron. A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator used to speed up tiny particles.

Later, Reiffel returned to the Illinois Institute of Technology. He became a Group Vice President at the IIT Research Institute. During his time there, Reiffel created and patented more than 50 different inventions. He won four R&D 100 Awards for his amazing work. He also worked with German scientists from Operation Paperclip to develop an early version of a railgun. A railgun is a weapon that uses electricity to launch projectiles very fast.

Working with NASA

Leonard Reiffel played a big role in NASA's Apollo program. This program aimed to send humans to the Moon. He started as an advisor, looking into whether life could exist on the Moon. From 1965 to 1969, he became the deputy director of the Apollo project.

During this time, Reiffel also led Project A119. This was a secret United States Air Force project that planned to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon. Reiffel worked on this project with Carl Sagan, a famous astronomer, and Gerard Kuiper. Reiffel also led a board that worked with NASA, the Air Force, and the United States Department of Defense on space experiments.

Broadcasting and the Telestrator

Reiffel also worked in radio and television. He hosted shows like Backyard Safari, Dimensions on Tomorrow's Living, and The World Tomorrow. His show Backyard Safari was nominated for an Emmy Award. In 1968, Reiffel won a Peabody Award for his work on The World Tomorrow.

His experience in broadcasting led him to invent the telestrator. This device lets people draw over live or recorded video images. Today, it's often used by American football broadcasters to explain plays. Reiffel first used the telestrator on Backyard Safari. He then convinced a TV weatherman, John Coughlin, to use it for his forecasts. From there, sports anchor Johnny Morris introduced it to sports broadcasting.

Other Interesting Work

Reiffel also worked as an art expert for the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2002, he helped check if a painting by Édouard Manet was real. In 1979, he wrote a science fiction novel called The Contaminant.

After the Chernobyl disaster, a nuclear accident in Ukraine, Reiffel advised the governments of Belarus and Ukraine. This experience inspired him to write another book about nuclear safety, though it was never published.

Later Life and Death

Leonard Reiffel passed away in Chicago on April 15, 2017. He died from complications related to pancreatic cancer. He was survived by his second wife, Nancy Reiffel, and his two sons, Evan and David.