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Geoffrey Ballard, CM, OBC (16 October 1932 – 2 August 2008) was a Canadian geophysicist and businessman. A longtime advocate of replacing the internal combustion engine, in 1979 Ballard founded what would become Ballard Power Systems to develop commercial applications of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEM). Acknowledged worldwide as the father of the fuel cell industry,〔 ''Time'' named him a "Hero for the Planet" in 1999.〔Margot Hornblower, ("Geoffrey Ballard: In a Hurry to Prove the "Pistonheads" Wrong" ), ''Time Magazine'', 8 March 1999〕 ==Early life and education== Ballard was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, to Jessie Marguerite Mildred of the Rowntree's family in York and Archibald Hall Ballard of Staten Island, New York. His father studied electrochemical engineering at the University of Toronto and later specialized in the area of radiation. He was working at Carborundum Corporation when the lab director fell overboard from a boat during a party and was washed over Niagara Falls, so Archibald Ballard was promoted to lab director at a relatively young age in his mid-40s. He spent most of World War II at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, working on the atomic bomb.〔Koppel, pp. 3-4〕 After high school in Niagara Falls, Ballard attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, studying geological engineering.〔http://appsci.queensu.ca/alumni/profiles/ballard/〕 Here he met his future wife, Shelagh, and they married and graduated the same year, in 1956. Ballard won a position at Shell Oil in Alberta, leading exploration teams on horseback. He left Shell for Mobil Oil and travelled around the world on exploration trips. During these trips his advice was often ignored as he was "only" a BSc (difficult enough in 1950s), and after several such incidents he decided to leave industry and took a doctorate in earth and planetary sciences from Washington University in St. Louis.〔Patricia Sullivan, ("Obituaries: Geoffrey Ballard, 76; Developed Hydrogen Fuel Cells" ), ''Washington Post'', 7 August 2008, p. B05〕 After receiving his PhD in 1963, Ballard worked as a civilian for the U.S. Army, specializing in microwave communications and studying how to hide refueling tanks under the ice in Greenland.〔 Ballard was working for the Army at Fort Huachuca in Arizona in 1973 when the oil crisis hit. The U.S. government responded by establishing the U.S. Federal Energy Conservation Research office, and started looking for someone to run it. Given his background running projects, the Army seconded him to become the office's director, initially for six months.〔Koppel, p. 7〕 He quickly grew disillusioned with the political system. "Energy systems are notorious for their long gestation periods, often twenty years or longer, () there had to be a pay-off in a product within five to seven years in order to justify the public money being put in. There are political cycles involving re-election, so the politicians didn't want to put money into systems that were going to come to fruition in some other generation. You sent out the plans, and they hacked and cut at them."〔Koppel, p. 8〕 When the contract ran out, he decided to quit and strike out on his own. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Geoffrey Ballard, CM, OBC (16 October 1932 – 2 August 2008) was a Canadian geophysicist and businessman. A longtime advocate of replacing the internal combustion engine, in 1979 Ballard founded what would become Ballard Power Systems to develop commercial applications of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEM). Acknowledged worldwide as the father of the fuel cell industry, ''Time'' named him a "Hero for the Planet" in 1999.Margot Hornblower, ("Geoffrey Ballard: In a Hurry to Prove the "Pistonheads" Wrong" ), ''Time Magazine'', 8 March 1999==Early life and education==Ballard was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, to Jessie Marguerite Mildred of the Rowntree's family in York and Archibald Hall Ballard of Staten Island, New York. His father studied electrochemical engineering at the University of Toronto and later specialized in the area of radiation. He was working at Carborundum Corporation when the lab director fell overboard from a boat during a party and was washed over Niagara Falls, so Archibald Ballard was promoted to lab director at a relatively young age in his mid-40s. He spent most of World War II at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, working on the atomic bomb.Koppel, pp. 3-4After high school in Niagara Falls, Ballard attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, studying geological engineering.http://appsci.queensu.ca/alumni/profiles/ballard/ Here he met his future wife, Shelagh, and they married and graduated the same year, in 1956. Ballard won a position at Shell Oil in Alberta, leading exploration teams on horseback. He left Shell for Mobil Oil and travelled around the world on exploration trips. During these trips his advice was often ignored as he was "only" a BSc (difficult enough in 1950s), and after several such incidents he decided to leave industry and took a doctorate in earth and planetary sciences from Washington University in St. Louis.Patricia Sullivan, ("Obituaries: Geoffrey Ballard, 76; Developed Hydrogen Fuel Cells" ), ''Washington Post'', 7 August 2008, p. B05After receiving his PhD in 1963, Ballard worked as a civilian for the U.S. Army, specializing in microwave communications and studying how to hide refueling tanks under the ice in Greenland. Ballard was working for the Army at Fort Huachuca in Arizona in 1973 when the oil crisis hit. The U.S. government responded by establishing the U.S. Federal Energy Conservation Research office, and started looking for someone to run it. Given his background running projects, the Army seconded him to become the office's director, initially for six months.Koppel, p. 7He quickly grew disillusioned with the political system. "Energy systems are notorious for their long gestation periods, often twenty years or longer, () there had to be a pay-off in a product within five to seven years in order to justify the public money being put in. There are political cycles involving re-election, so the politicians didn't want to put money into systems that were going to come to fruition in some other generation. You sent out the plans, and they hacked and cut at them."Koppel, p. 8 When the contract ran out, he decided to quit and strike out on his own.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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