X-Message-Number: 9615
Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 09:09:48 -0400
From: Rafi Haftka <>
Subject: Jolted into action
I sent a slightly longer version of the following letter to Saul Kent after
reading his post on the failure of the cryonics movement. In the letter I
asked for suggestions, and I would appreciate suggestions from others as
well.
Hi,
Your post on the failure of the Cryonics movement was extremely good. You
may be too pessimistic as every new movement goes through a process of
aging because new movements are started by young people. However, I
basically agree with everything else you said, and so I asked myself, what
I am going to do about it.
I decided on a course of action which may be different from yours, but
which plays to my strengths, and I would appreciate any suggestions that
you may have. I need to give you a bit of background about myself.
I am five years younger than you, and I became interested in Cryonics
around 1970. I have been a suspension member of ACS for many years, but
that was all tI did. Now I would like to help building bridges to the
cryobiology community.
I am a professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida, but
my department is called Aerospace Engineering, Mechanics and Engineering
Science. Most of the Engineering Science contingent, including more than
half of our undergraduate students, are in the area of biomechanics, that
is the study of the mechanics of biological systems. For example, we have
faculty members that study the flow properties of red cells in blood, or
the strength of bones. Several of them team up for their research with MDs
from the medical school.
Cryobiomechanics (I hope the term exists), the study of the mechanical
behavior of tissue at low temperature, would be a legitimate activity in my
department, and I set myself a goal of becoming active in this field within
the next five years. I would like to spend the next year or two studying
cryobiology, and would appreciate suggestions on the best textbooks and
papers.
I hope to concentrate on problems that would be of interest to both
cryobiologists and cryonicists. One example which may not be applicable
because I know too little at the moment is freezing of organs needed for
transplants, that have similar properties to those of the brain (liver?).
I have been successful in obtaining money from the federal government to
support research I like to do. I get about $300,000 per year, and have a
cumulative total of about $5 Million in 1998 dollars. I hope that I will be
able to get a total of $250,000 over a few years for cryobiomechanics,
working together with cryobiologists. This is much much more than I can
contribute from my own funds.
Rafi Haftka
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Raphael(Rafi) T. Haftka < >
University of Florida Phone: (352)-392-9595
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Fax: (352)-392-7303
Mechanics and Engineering Science http://www.aero.ufl.edu/~haftka/
Gainesville, FL 32611-6250 (beware, a lot of graphics!)
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Check the web page of the International Society of Structural and
Multidisciplinary Optimization (ISSMO) at http://www.aero.ufl.edu/~issmo/
for details about the MicroAV competition!
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