astronomy

John B. MacChesney

John B. MacChesney is a astronomy 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 John B. MacChesney rather than just read about it. In short: John Burnette MacChesney II (July 8, 1929 – September 30, 2021) was an American scientist. A Bell Labs pioneer in optical communication, he was best known for his 1974 invention of the modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) process with colleague P.B.

Key takeaways

John B. MacChesney belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John B. MacChesney to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John B. MacChesney from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Burnette MacChesney II (July 8, 1929 – September 30, 2021) was an American scientist. A Bell Labs pioneer in optical communication, he was best known for his 1974 invention of the modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) process with colleague P.B. O'Connor, and for co-inventing high-purity "sol-gel" overcladding for optical fiber in the early 1980s. These inventions were key to the commercial manufacture of optical fiber.

Biography John Burnette MacChesney II was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, on July 8, 1929, to John Burnette MacChesney I. Raised in Caldwell, New Jersey, he graduated from Grover Cleveland High School (since renamed as James Caldwell High School). He received his B.A. degree from Bowdoin College in 1951, served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, and subsequently studied at City College of New York and New York University while working in New York City. In 1959 he received his Ph.D. in geochemistry from Pennsylvania State University, and joined Bell Labs, examining electrical and magnetic properties of ceramics and single crystals. In 1972 he turned his attention to glass and then to erbium and other rare-earth materials for fiber optic amplifiers. MacChesney was an adjunct professor at Brown and Rutgers universities, as well as the Kwangju Institute of Science and Technology in Korea, and held more than a hundred domestic and foreign patents. He received the Charles Stark Draper Prize (1999), the John Tyndall Award (1999), the IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award (1978), and other awards from the American Ceramic Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Physical Society, Sigma Xi, and the Research and Development Council of New Jersey. In 1985, MacChesney was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for leadership in the invention of processes to make glasses for optical fiber and for transfer of these processes to manufacturing. MacChesney died on September 30, 2021, at the age of 92.

References

Sources Draper Prize biography Bell Labs press release (Oct. 8, 1999)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John B. MacChesney

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John B. MacChesney claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, 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 John B. MacChesney 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 John B. MacChesney 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 John B. MacChesney

In research: John B. MacChesney appears in astronomy 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 John B. MacChesney 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: John B. MacChesney is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1929 births, 2021 deaths, Bowdoin College alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John B. MacChesney 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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How to study John B. MacChesney in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John B. MacChesney means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John B. MacChesney out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John B. MacChesney in simple terms?

Why does John B. MacChesney matter?

Because it connects several astronomy 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.

How should I study John B. MacChesney?

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.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John B. MacChesney.