engineering

James Baker-Jarvis

James Baker-Jarvis is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand James Baker-Jarvis rather than just read about it. In short: James Roger Baker-Jarvis (né Baker; February 8, 1950 — December 31, 2011) was an American applied physicist and metrologist who was a research scientist at the Electromagnetics Division at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He is best known for his contribution to the metrology of dielectric properties of materials in microwave frequencies.

Key takeaways

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Reference excerpt

James Roger Baker-Jarvis (né Baker; February 8, 1950 — December 31, 2011) was an American applied physicist and metrologist who was a research scientist at the Electromagnetics Division at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He is best known for his contribution to the metrology of dielectric properties of materials in microwave frequencies.

Biography James Roger Baker-Jarvis was born on February 8, 1950, in Lauderdale, Minnesota. He received B.S. degree in mathematics and M.S. degree in physics from University of Minnesota in 1975 and 1980, respectively. He pursued his doctoral studies in University of Wyoming and obtained a PhD. degree in theoretical physics in 1984. His post-doctoral work concerned dielectric measurements and electromagnetic fields in lossy media. Spending two years as an assistant professor at University of Wyoming, he then moved to North Dakota State University, where he was an assistant professor of physics and worked on electromagnetic heating processes and maximum entropy methods. In 1989, he joined National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he spent the remainder of his career and was the leader of Electromagnetic Properties of Materials Project. Baker-Jarvis' research work at NIST focused on microwave dielectric properties of materials and nondestructive evaluation. ASTM Standard 5568 for dielectric metrology techniques was largely based on his work on coaxial cable measurements. An iterative measurement technique measurement technique introduced by Baker-Jarvis and his colleagues is known as Baker-Jarvis algorithm or NIST iterative method. In 2010, he was named a fellow member of IEEE for "contributions to dielectric measurement and analysis of microwave measurement structures." Baker-Jarvis was married to Karen Baker-Jarvis, with whom he met at University of Minnesota. They took on a hyphenated surname. He died on December 31, 2011, following an automobile accident, and was survived by his wife and two children.

Selected publications Journal articles Baker-Jarvis, James; Racine, Michael; Alameddine, Jihad (1989). "Solving differential equations by a maximum entropy–minimum norm method with applications to Fokker–Planck equations". Journal of Mathematical Physics. 30 (7): 1459–1463. Bibcode:1989JMP....30.1459B. doi:10.1063/1.528276. Hansen, Andrew C.; Baker-Jarvis, James (August 1990). "A rate dependent kinetic theory of fracture for polymers". International Journal of Fracture. 44 (3): 221–231. doi:10.1007/BF00035518. Baker-Jarvis, J.; Vanzura, E. J.; Kissick, W. A. (August 1990). "Improved technique for determining complex permittivity with the transmission/reflection method". IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. 38 (8): 1096–1103. Bibcode:1990ITMTT..38.1096B. doi:10.1109/22.57336. Baker-Jarvis, J.; Janezic, M. D.; Domich, P. D.; Geyer, R. G. (October 1994). "Analysis of an open-ended coaxial probe with lift-off for nondestructive testing". IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement. 43 (5): 711–718. Bibcode:1994ITIM...43..711B. doi:10.1109/19.328897. Krupka, Jerzy; Derzakowski, Krzysztof; Riddle, Bill; Baker-Jarvis, James (1998). "A dielectric resonator for measurements of complex permittivity of low loss dielectric materials as a function of temperature". Measurement Science and Technology. 9 (10): 1751. Bibcode:1998MeScT...9.1751K. doi:10.1088/0957-0233/9/10/015. Riddle, B.; Baker-Jarvis, J.; Krupka, J. (March 2003). "Complex permittivity measurements of common plastics over variable temperatures". IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. 51 (3): 727–733. Bibcode:2003ITMTT..51..727R. doi:10.1109/TMTT.2003.808730. Holloway, C. L.; Kuester, E. F.; Baker-Jarvis, J.; Kabos, P. (October 2003). "A double negative (DNG) composite medium composed of magnetodielectric spherical particles embedded in a matrix". IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation. 51 (10): 2596–2603. Bibcode:2003ITAP...51.2596H. doi:10.1109/TAP.2003.817563. Baker-Jarvis, James; Kim, Sung (2012). "The interaction of radio-frequency fields with dielectric materials at macroscopic to mesoscopic scales". Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. 117: 1–60. doi:10.6028/jres.117.001. PMC 4553869. PMID 26900513. Technical reports Baker-Jarvis, James; Janezic, Michael D.; Grosvenor, Jr., John H.; Geyer, Richard G. (1993). Transmission/Reflection and short-circuit line methods for measuring permittivity and permeability (PDF) (Report). National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST Technical Note 1355-R.

References

External links In Memoriam: James Baker-Jarvis at IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Newsletter

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with James Baker-Jarvis

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what James Baker-Jarvis claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to James Baker-Jarvis before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about James Baker-Jarvis ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of James Baker-Jarvis

In research: James Baker-Jarvis appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses James Baker-Jarvis in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: James Baker-Jarvis is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1950 births, 2011 deaths, 20th-century American engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for James Baker-Jarvis outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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Frequently asked questions

What is James Baker-Jarvis in simple terms?

Why does James Baker-Jarvis matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

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Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

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It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on James Baker-Jarvis.