Richard Kaminsky

When did you join the Laboratory, and what was your experience leading up to your career here?

I joined the Laboratory in 2011, and it's been the capstone of my career. I've worked alongside brilliant people on communications technology and witnessed major impacts from our prototyping and technology transfer efforts. My group's R&D has won many R&D 100, NASA, and sponsor awards, and has resulted in hardware flown on NASA missions.

Previously, I held R&D jobs at two commercial companies, where I engineered magnetic hard disk drives and tape drives, with a brief entrepreneurial period in between. When 9/11 happened, to support national defense, I joined a Department of War prime contractor of radar systems and rose to become a senior principal systems engineer. Six years later, I came to the Laboratory. I was drawn to the environment of innovation, R&D that fit my educational background, and the excellent reputations of MIT and Lincoln Laboratory.

Are you involved in any outreach activities at the Laboratory?

I've served as the Communications Systems representative and organizer for Kids Day, an annual two-day event. Around 400 people (kids ages 8 to 18 and their parents) visit our exhibits each year. In the spirit of a science museum, we created hands-on demos introducing the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) behind radio and optical communications. I enjoy seeing kids and parents having fun with advanced topics ranging from electromagnetism and optics to photonics, signal processing, and software engineering.

I believe it’s not important for kids to understand everything. Actually, it's better that way. Few kids have learned the mathematics used in Maxwell’s equations, but they can understand a hand-waving explanation. The important points made are that STEM is a huge playground, their parents are doing amazing things applying STEM for our country, and a STEM career is well within their reach when they grow up.

Who or what inspires you?

Over the last 500 years, people's lives have improved tremendously in healthcare, transportation, communications, and other areas. What magic made those improvements possible? STEM. As a kid I was inspired by the science fiction of Robert A. Heinlein and Larry Niven, the original Star Trek series, and documentaries on Nicola Tesla.

How did you become interested in your field of study?

Electronics and software started as a hobby in my early teens. My father is an electrical engineer with a specialty in control systems. His college textbooks, test equipment, and some of the first personal computers (Sinclair ZX80, TRS-80, and Apple II) were strewn throughout our home.

During my sophomore year at college, my father asked what major I wanted. First reading Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken may have helped. Instead, I quickly thought, "Software engineering is easy. A more difficult field must pay better." So, I said I would become an electrical engineer specializing in control systems. That road led me to a PhD in electrical engineering with a focus on control systems. In retrospect, 80% of my work has been writing software and field-programmable gate array firmware. I discovered the road taken merged back to the road not taken.