Carl Henning of LLNL Passed Away

August 2, 2012 (PO13). Carl D. Henning, born on Feb, 28, 1939, passed away on June 13, 2012 at the Hospice of the East Bay, California. Carl was a mechanical engineer having received his BS from Ohio University and his PhD from the University of Michigan. He spent most of his career at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) where he held many senior management and technical leadership positions in research toward controlling nuclear fusion as an energy source. Carl designed the “baseball” superconducting magnet at LLNL, was responsible for building the world's largest magnet at that time, but also designing massive containment vessels for stemming the oil fires in Kuwait. He spent two years on assignment in Germany as a member of the US contingent of scientists designing the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, ITER.  Much earlier, Carl spent three years at Intermagnetics General Corporation IGC) as VP for Technology Development where he contributed to the development of an MRI machine for General Electric (see RN22).  In 1976-1978 he worked at the Dept. of Energy as Branch Chief in the Office of Magnetic Fusion.  He was Chairman of the ASC in the late 1980s.

Carl was the author of many technical papers and presentations, held five U.S. patents, and received numerous honors and awards, including being elected as a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society. In 2011 he was elected to the Fairview High School Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was raised. Carl was an adventurer, rebuilding and flying his own airplanes, and in retirement, sailing a large catamaran which he and his wife, Judy, lived on in the Caribbean for several months of each year.  Among his numerous exploit, in 1988 he flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean in his Cessna 337 which he had rebuilt. Carl, with his infectious laughter, will be remembered by his many friends as a confident, self-sufficient man who relished daunting challenges.