Jarvinen's career path became evident during his childhood. As a young boy, Jarvinen would daydream while sitting on the front porch of his home about what he would do when he grew up.

"I remember as a youngster noting the makes and models of cars going down the road," chuckled Jarvinen, "and keeping statistical accounts of the popularity of their makes as well as their ages."

This experience, along with inspiration from his father who also shared his passion for numbers, led Jarvinen to a career in mathematics and science.

In 1960, Richard Jarvinen graduated with a bachelor's degree from Saint John's University, in Collegeville, Minn. One year later, he received his master's degree from Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tenn. At the same time, the United States was involved with the Cuban Missile crisis and the threat of a Russian attack during the Vietnam War. It would be soon that Jarvinen's skills would be used for military intelligence.

After graduation, Jarvinen accepted a position with Univac, in St. Paul, Minn. Jarvinen worked on the Nike Zeus project, helping develop an anti-missile missile capable of intercepting an invading missile while in flight. This occurred during a time when the U.S. government was concerned the Russians would aim a missile with a nuclear warhead at the United States. Jarvinen worked on the Nike Zeus project until 1962, when he decided to hit the books once again.

While studying for a Ph.D. degree in mathematics from Syracuse University, Jarvinen looked for fruitful employment during the summer months. With his new interest in aerospace engineering, Jarvinen investigated and discovered that General Electric did aerospace work.

"I was hired by the heavy military electronics division of General Electric," said Jarvinen, "and did some of the most interesting math I've ever done in my life."

During his years with General Electric, Jarvinen helped solve two major problems. One involved the development of a mathematical procedure to optimize the probability of detecting satellites in earth's orbit at all times during a radar searching procedure. The other involved an early application of the theory of pattern recognition to diagnose foreign airplane traffic.

After receiving his Ph.D. degree, Jarvinen began his career in higher education at Carleton College. A career move brought him to Winona, Minn., where he worked at St. Mary's University among other ventures, including two research appointments in medical research statistics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

In 1989, with the advent of WSU's engineering program, Jarvinen came to Winona State as a full-time faculty member in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Six years later, Jarvinen was granted a sabbatical leave. As a result of his past experiences, Jarvinen knew he wanted to work with aerospace or biostatistics during his sabbatical. He also knew that Houston, Texas, was home to one of the best health science centers in the nation. With this in mind, Jarvinen started making connections.

"I called NASA and told them I had a sabbatical leave," said Jarvinen, "and was interested in a visiting position at the Johnson Space Center."

He packed his bags and headed to Houston, Texas, for three days. During his interview at the Johnson Space Center, he was asked to give a presentation to show the scientists some of the types of problems he had been working on.

"I wasn't expecting to give a presentation," said Jarvinen, "however, I had some of the formulas I was working with in my wallet. I used those as the basis for my extemporaneous presentation."

Jarvinen left Houston hoping to receive one of three positions with either the NASA Johnson Space Center, the University of Texas School of Public Health or the mathematics department at Rice University. He then took a teaching position in Japan where he taught the spring and summer of 1995. While in Japan, Jarvinen received notice regarding the positions in Houston and was delighted to find out that he was granted all three roles, each to begin in the fall of 1995.

While in Houston, Jarvinen served as a research scientist consultant for NASA, a visiting professor of biometry at the University of Texas School of Public Health, and a visiting professor of mathematics at Rice University. Jarvinen divided his weeks to serve all of his roles. He worked two or three days a week at the Johnson Space Center and at least one day each at the University of Texas and Rice University.    

The work Jarvinen did at each institution was related to a research project he was undertaking at NASA. He took methods of medical research, which he used at the Mayo Clinic for the study of survivability of people, and applied those methods to the study of the reliability of aerospace hardware. To do that, Jarvinen created mathematical and statistical models to solve real-world problems. His skills were put to the test when a critical issue came up that grabbed the attention of all 15 NASA centers.

"It was a reoccurring problem," said Jarvinen. "A problem of the type that caused the Challenger accident in January of 1986."

Jarvinen analyzed the issue, which entailed the study of gas paths on the thrusters of the solid rocket motors on the space shuttle, using a method he applied in his work at the Mayo Clinic in medical research statistics. His research helped him diagnose an important trend in gas path incidents.

As a result of his work, Jarvinen received the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Award recognizing superior accomplishment, which hangs in his office at Winona State.

"It was granted to me by the director of the Johnson Space Center," said Jarvinen. "He oversees 3,000 civil servants and 10,000 contractors who work for the center."

With his success, came appointments from NASA to work on many other projects.

Ten years later,  Jarvinen is still doing special projects for NASA. He is a member of a national team that supports the NASA Engineering Safety Center (NESC). His recent work has involved research on the February 2003 Columbia accident and support efforts to return to safe flight.

"My NASA work breathes life into me, and it helps me stay sharp," said Jarvinen. "I create models and solve problems that are important."

He is also a full-time mathematics and statistics professor at WSU. After spending his days with students, he reserves his evenings for his work with NASA.

"I really enjoy doing both jobs because one job component is an asset to the other," said Jarvinen. "As a professor, I'm growing in my basic knowledge and I get a chance to apply it at NASA. From NASA, I bring interesting methods back into the mathematics and statistics classrooms."

Jarvinen says he owes Winona State a big thank you. He believes that without the university granting him the timely sabbatical leave, the opportunities he's been given at NASA would never have occurred.

At the same time, Winona State University is proud to count Jarvinen among its faculty who, every day, find unique and valuable ways of bringing real-life experiences into the classroom.

Last Modified: Monday, March 21, 2005 14:13 by Rhone Richard