David J. Nagel

David Nagel started school at an early age and completed it shortly before turning 40, apparently a slow learner. Unable to decide on what to do, he studied three majors and wound up with a Ph.D. in materials engineering from the University of Maryland. After four years of active duty and 26 years in the Naval Reserve, he became an expired captain in 1990. He worked at the Naval Research Laboratory for 36 years, apparently unable to find a job elsewhere. While there, he had an accident and turned into a division head for 13 years. His careers in the Navy and in R&D were concurrent, not consecutive. For the past six years, he has been a research professor at The George Washington University. This means that he is neither a real doctor nor a real professor. Currently, Nagel, still unable to focus, performs studies on a wide variety of topics. He teaches a course on applications of micromachines, which is his chance to retaliate for suffering inflicted by teachers during his long academic career. His primary products are hot air and marks on otherwise clean papers.

(Editor's meddling: Nagel was Superintendent of the Condensed Matter and Radiation Sciences Division at the Naval Research Laboratory and has written or co-authored more than 150 technical articles, reports, book chapters, and encyclopedia articles primarily on the applications of MEMS and nanotechnology.)