Augie then spent some time at Howmet in Muskegon, MI, developing titanium superalloys and ceramics for casting turbine parts before entering the lab of Prof. Edwin Westrom at the University of Michigan to study calorimetry. He received his PhD in Physical Chemistry in 1977.
In 1973, before submitting his dissertation, he moved to Exxon Research in Linden, NJ, where he resumed work on high-energy-density batteries for vehicles and power storage and also studied Fischer-Tropsch catalysts.
After leaving Exxon permanently in 1982, he co-founded Omicron Technologies, where he developed the first continuous volumetric system for measuring adsorption isotherms with high resolution. Several other innovations were developed at Omicron including the use of Argon instead of Nitrogen to elucidate zeolite pore structures and the implementation of the Horvath-Kawazoe method to infer pore size distributions. Omicron Technologies was bought by Coulter Electronics in 1988, after which Augie founded VTI Corp. in 1989.
At VTI, Augie pioneered the development of high-pressure volumetric adsorption technology, which was eventually purchased by Micromeritics Instrumentation Corp. Augie also developed high-pressure gravimetric sorption instruments and systems for characterizing water adsorption and adsorption/reaction for various applications. VTI also developed the HG-100 humidity generator and vapor generators for pharmaceutical applications as well as pressure swing adsorption (PSA) systems for NASA’s research on the International Space Station.
TA Instruments purchased VTI Corp. in 2008, leaving Augie free to found L&C Science and Technology, Inc., in response to the growing need for lab bench-scale pressure- and temperature-swing adsorption systems for process research on gas separations and adsorption/reaction.
Augie is very happy to share the fruits of 50+ years of research on gas separations and storage and to develop custom instrumentation for clients’ applications. Please get in touch using the contact form above or give us a call!
