Gourdine is generally recognized as one of the twentieth-century's pioneers in energy conversion , which is the science of converting fossil fuels to useful heat and electricity with as little pollution and energy loss as possible. Gourdine was born in New Jersey and raised in New York City. He first attended a Catholic elementary school, where he became interested in math and science. After graduating from Brooklyn Tech, Gourdine entered Cornell University, where he studied math, physics, and engineering. While a college student, he participated in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, and won the silver medal in the long broad jump. After finishing his studies at Cornell, Gourdine went on to earn his Ph.D. in Engineering Science at the California Institute of Technology, eventually working at Jet Propulsion Laboratories in California and as chief scientist aeronaut at the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. Finding that his interests were in the theories...