NASA taps professor's expertise for safety research

Staring off into space has a different meaning for Richard Jarvinen, Winona State University mathematics and statistics professor and NASA research scientist consultant.

For him, it's a part of his job on the national team that supports the NASA Engineering Safety Center. His recent work has involved research on the February 2003 Columbia accident and efforts to return to safe flight.

"My NASA work breathes life into me, and it helps me stay sharp," said Jarvinen, who spends his daytime hours with students and reserves his evenings for his work with NASA. "I create models and solve problems that are important."

Jarvinen's career path became evident during his childhood. As a young boy, he would daydream about what he would do when he grew up.

"I remember as a youngster noting the makes and models of cars going down the road and keeping statistical accounts of the popularity of their makes as well as their ages," he said, chuckling.

In 1960, Jarvinen graduated from St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn., and a year later received his master's from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. At the same time, the United States was involved with the Cuban missile crisis and the threat of a Russian attack during the Vietnam War.

Soon Jarvinen's skills would be used for military intelligence. At Univac in St. Paul, he worked on the Nike Zeus project, helping develop an anti-missile missile capable of intercepting an invading missile in flight.

Then, while studying for a Ph.D. in mathematics from Syracuse University, he discovered General Electric did aerospace work.

"I was hired by the heavy military electronics division of General Electric and did some of the most interesting math I've ever done in my life," he said. During his years there, Jarvinen helped solve two major problems. One involved development of a mathematical procedure to enhance the probability of detecting satellites in earth's orbit at all times. The other involved an early application of the theory of pattern recognition to diagnose foreign airplane traffic.

Richard Jarvinen, Winona State University mathematics and statistics professor, serves as a NASA research scientist consultant.

After receiving his doctorate, Jarvinen began his higher education career at Carleton College, followed by a position at St. Mary's University in Winona, while also holding appointments in medical research statistics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

Jarvinen came to Winona State in 1989 as a full-time faculty member in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Six years later, Jarvinen was granted a sabbatical leave.

"I called NASA and told them I had a sabbatical leave and was interested in a visiting position at the Johnson Space Center," he said. During his interview at the Space Center in Houston, he was asked unexpectedly to show the scientists the types of problems he had been working on.

"I had some of the formulas I was working with in my wallet," he said. "I used those as the basis for my extemporaneous presentation."

Jarvinen left Houston hoping to receive one of three positions, and while teaching that spring and summer in Japan, learned he was granted all three - each beginning in fall 1995. He served as a research scientist consultant for NASA, a visiting professor of biometry at the University of Texas School of Public Health, and a visiting professor of mathematics at Rice University.

Jarvinen divided his weeks, working two or three days a week at the Johnson Space Center and at least one day each at the University of Texas and Rice University. His work at each place related to a research project at NASA. He took methods of medical research, which he used at the Mayo Clinic for the study of survivability of people, and applied them to the reliability of aerospace hardware by creating mathematical and statistical models.

His skills were put to the test when a critical issue came up that grabbed the attention of all 15 NASA centers.

"It was a reoccurring problem," said Jarvinen. "It was a problem of the type that caused the Challenger accident in January of 1986."

Jarvinen analyzed the issue, which entailed the study of gas paths on the thrusters of the solid rocket motors on the space shuttle, using a method he had applied at the Mayo Clinic in medical research statistics. His research helped him diagnose an important trend in gas path incidents.

As a result, Jarvinen received the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Award recognizing superior accomplishment, which hangs in his office at Winona State. With his success came appointments from NASA to work on many other projects.

Ten years later, Jarvinen still is doing special projects for NASA.

"I really enjoy doing both jobs because one job component is an asset to the other," he said. "As a professor, I'm growing in my basic knowledge and I get a chance to apply it at NASA. From NASA, I bring interesting methods back into the mathematics and statistics classrooms."