Helmut Hans Portmann
| Helmut Hans Portmann | |
|---|---|
| File:Helmut Hans Portmann.jpgHelmut Hans Portmann.jpg | |
| Born | November 3, 1954 Ennetbaden, Switzerland |
| 🎓 Alma mater | Georgia Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | Unmanned systems |
| 👩 Spouse(s) | Julie Ann Cowen |
Helmut Hans Portmann an American electrical and systems engineer, inventor, and novelist, best known for his thrillers based on his real-life adventures in the offshore oil fields, secret nuclear missile systems, and unmanned systems development.
Early Life and Education
Portmann was born on November 3, 1954, in Ennetbaden, Switzerland, to Irmgard Leonore Portmann, originally German and his father Helmut. The family moved to the United States at a young age and grew up in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Portmann earned his B.S.E.E.Electrical Engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and later obtained his graduate degree in underwater acoustics from Johns Hopkins University.[1]
Career
Portmann's early career was marked by work in the defense industry, where he analyzed and mitigated detectable acoustic and non-acoustic signatures of US submarines. He later became a sonar analyst at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Panama City, Florida. In 2009, Portmann was selected to become a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) and director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA National Data Buoy Center[2].
NAVY Program Contributions
A notable project under his direction was the FY 2004 Joint Unmanned Systems Common Control (JUSC2) project to conduct an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration of the ability to link operations of different kinds of unmanned vehicles to a single control system.[3]
NOAA Program Contributions
Under Portmann's leadership, the world's first operational unmanned system used as a tsunameter was placed in service in 2012. The system used Wave Glider for the launch, and is integrated into NOAA's Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) network. [4]
Works
Portmann has published several novels, including:
- Adios El Jefe [5] : Cold War thriller that follows five young Cuban boys who seek vengeance against Fidel Castro's revolutionaries. The novel is inspired by Portmann's experiences launching Pershing 1a missiles into the Atlantic Ocean from Cape Canaveral in the 1980s. (This is the first of a planned Alex Beck series of novels).
- Phantom of the Gulf - US Navy monitoring picks up mysterious sonar sound echoes as sound blasts from Oil & Gas seismic surveys bounce off a mysterious underwater object moving among drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.
Personal Life
Portmann has been married twice, first to Dona K. Aaron, an artist, and then to Julie Ann Cowen. He has one son, Alex Hans Portmann, with his second wife.
Achievements and Awards
Portmann's achievements include:
- 2004 AUVSI (Association of Unmanned Vehicles International) Pioneer Award
- 2003 NSWC Panama City Commanding Officer/Executive Director 2003 Guy C. Dilworth Award.
- Portmann led a team that investigating novel submarine acoustic signature patterns documented in a highly classified report.
- Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Government Contracts : Portmann was responsible for multiple SBIR government contracts while employed at Applied Mathematics, Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Technical Publications and Patents
- 2014 Counter-vandalism at NDBC [6]
- Unmanned aerial vehicle catcher, US Patent US7264204B1 [9]
- Mine clearing device incorporating unbiased motion, US Patent US7484447B1 [10]
- Mine clearing device incorporating pneumatic thrust and unbiased motion, US Patent US7467579B1[11]
- Method and system for deployment of ordnance from an aircraft in mid-flight, US Patent US7735781B1, [12]
- Launch and recovery system for unmanned underwater vehicles, US Patent [13]
References
- ↑ https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/ocala/name/irmgard-portmann-obituary?id=20467750
- ↑ https://www.weather.gov/organization/portmann_helmut
- ↑ https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/insipent.20.8.07
- ↑ https://www.weather.gov/news/130329-waves
- ↑ Portmann, H.H. Adios El Jefe! Xlibris US, https://www.vlebooks.com/vleweb/product/openreader?id=none&isbn=9798369414965. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024. https://search.worldcat.org/title/1422742092
- ↑ Beets, Raymond, Christopher Hill, Robert Coniglione, and Helmut Portmann. "Counter-vandalism at NDBC." In 2014 Oceans-St. John's, pp. 1-7. IEEE, 2014. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7003182
- ↑ Summey, Delbert C., Rafael R. Rodriguez, David P. Demartino, H. H. Portmann, and Elan Moritz. Shaping the future of naval warfare with unmanned systems. No. CSS/TR-01/09. Naval Surface Warfare Center (US). Dahlgren Division, 2001. https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/15270, https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/15270/dot_15270_DS1.pdf
- ↑ https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/24828409
- ↑ https://patents.google.com/patent/US7264204B1/
- ↑ https://patents.google.com/patent/US7484447B1/
- ↑ https://patents.google.com/patent/US7467579B1/, https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/0f/8c/1d/fff29ee54fd6ad/US7467579.pdf
- ↑ https://patents.google.com/patent/US7735781B1/, https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/55/b1/7e/9c5461b1386e0a/US7735781.pdf
- ↑ https://patents.google.com/patent/US6779475B1/, https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/3d/e8/ff/8026bfe046d5ee/US6779475.pdf
This article "Helmut Portmann" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Helmut Portmann. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
