The Washington Post published a profile of Michigan Tech alumnus Paul Jablonski ’87, a metallurgist with the US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory. His profile was part of a series on little-known federal workers whose work has a significant impact on society.
From Tech Today.
DOE metallurgist revolutionized coronary stent technology
The tiny scaffolding had to be strong, long-lasting and visible to an X-ray. It had to be able to hold open a human artery for extended periods of time to keep blood flowing. It had to be able to keep people alive.
That was the task put before Paul Jablonski, a metallurgist in the Process Development Division of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Albany, Ore.
Jablonski brought to bear his own metallurgical expertise as well as his creativity and innovation to make unusual prototypes of the material. There was some skepticism about the potential of these alloys, since their creation in some cases went against metallurgical theory.
Read more at the Washington Post.