About
In Memoriam: Terrill A. Cool,
Mar 05, 2012
In Memoriam: Terrill A. Cool, 1936-2012
Terrill A. Cool, an OSA Fellow Emeritus who was a professor emeritus of applied and engineering physics at Cornell University, died 5 March 2012 in Ithaca, NY, USA, after a short illness. He was 75.
Cool's research interests included the application of laser spectroscopy to problems in chemical physics, which ranged from studies of hyperfine quantum beats in laser-excited molecular fluorescence to nonlinear optical methods for combustion diagnostics.
Born Aug. 18, 1936, in Boulder, Colorado, Cool received his B.S. in Physics from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1961 and his M.S. (1962) and Ph.D. (1965) from the California Institute of Technology. After completing his graduate work in plasma physics, Cool joined the faculty of the Cornell University School of Applied and Engineering Physics.
Throughout his 46-year scientific career, he authored more than 100 refereed publications with his graduate students, describing research on the discovery and development of atomic, molecular and chemical lasers; molecular energy transfer; laser spectroscopy; chemi-ionization in flames; laser-based combustion diagnostics; the application of REMPI spectroscopy to ultrasensitive detection of chlorinated hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon flame radicals; and the use of flame sampling photoionization mass spectrometry for kinetic modeling of the combustion of hydrocarbons, organophosphonates and chlorocarbons. For the past several years, Cool had worked collaboratively with investigators at the Lawrence Berkley Laboratory on numerous research projects.
Cool was named an OSA Fellow in 1993. He was also a fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the American Chemical Society and the Combustion Institute.
Cool is survived by his wife, Nancy, three children, two stepchildren and nine grandchildren.
If you would like to make a donation to the OSA Foundation in memory of Terrill A. Cool, please visit www.osa-foundation.org/give.
