LEONARD (LEN) REIFFEL
Dr. Len Reiffel has founded several high-tech companies. His previous entrepreneurial activities have included both privately financed ventures as well as taking one of his companies (Interand Corp.) through the full gamut of development stages to a successful IPO and subsequent financings. That company's technology was ultimately bought by LG Electronics of Korea and presently provides key functionality for image handling on the Internet. During his time as CEO of Interand, Reiffel successfully led an effort to win the first major video terminal equipment procurement contract ever awarded competitively to an American firm by the giant NTT corporation of Japan. Reiffel is the inventor of several interactive graphics communications systems, including the well-known Telestrator (also sometimes called the TV Chalkboard) which today is used around the world by broadcasters, weathermen, producers of TV commercials and instructional television, and by network sports commentators such as John Madden, Mike Fratello and many others. In 2004, Len was presented with an individual Technology and Engineering EMMY award by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences "for his pioneering efforts in the invention of the Telestrator."
Len is a widely-recognized scientist, educator and technical administrator as well as an inventor/entrepreneur. He has served as a consultant to numerous high-tech companies in the US and abroad, the US Department of Defense, the Department of Energy (AEC) and NASA. As Deputy Director of NASA's Apollo Program Office (1965-1969), he was the Headquarters executive responsible for all manned lunar experiments and support equipment. He was the NASA Headquarters person overseeing the lunar landing-site selection process, scientific aspects of astronaut activities, both in-flight and on the lunar surface, and matters of astronaut safety involving a science component such as solar-flare hazards, bio-contamination, lunar surface reactivity and many other such topics. Reiffel also served for several years as the Technical Director of the Interagency Manned Space Flight Experiments Board (NASA, DOD, USAF etc.).
In an unprecedented arrangement with the NASA, Dr. Reiffel, while carrying out his NASA responsibilities, concurrently was science consultant and on-air Science Commentator for the CBS Network.
Prior to joining NASA, Dr. Reiffel was Group Vice President of the IIT Research Institute, where he was a member of the Management Committee in addition to supervising a wide range of technical projects. He headed the Institute's activities in physics, fluid dynamics, space science and geophysics, while directing a staff of several hundred research scientists, engineers and support staff.
Reiffel has frequently worked closely with large and small technology companies in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Korea, either as a consultant or co-venturer.
On four occasions, Reiffel received the Industrial Research IR-1OO Award for the development of one of the 100 most outstanding technical products of the year. He has published many scientific papers in the fields of nuclear physics, fiber optics, electronics, video systems and space sciences and is the holder of approximately 50 patents.
Reiffel worked extensively with the Walt Disney organization in conceptualizing and implementing electronic entertainment systems at Disney World's EPCOT Center and particularly for “The ImageWorks” in the $75 million Kodak Pavilion where millions of guests annually used equipment designed and developed by Reiffel and his associates.
For many years, as an avocation, Dr. Reiffel regularly covered important events in science for CBS television and radio. He received the Aviation Writer's Association Award for outstanding coverage of events in space and also broadcasting's most coveted prize--the George Foster Peabody Award.
Reiffel began his professional career at the Institute for Nuclear Studies, University of Chicago, where he worked in association with Professors H. L. Anderson and Enrico Fermi on the design of the 450 inch cyclotron which was constructed there. A Fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of numerous other professional organizations, Reiffel is recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from his Alma Mater, the Illinois Institute of Technology and a variety of technical and entrepreneurial awards from various other organizations. He was inducted into the IIT Hall of Fame in 1984. He is currently a member of the Board of Overseers at Illinois Tech.
Reiffel received his BS, MS, and Ph.D. from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is listed in Who's Who in America, American Men and Women of Science and various similar compilations.
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