William P. Parker is an American artist, scientist, and entrepreneur, best known for inventing the modern design of the plasma globe. [1] The invention occurred in 1971, when Parker was working as a student in a physics laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and accidentally filled a test chamber to a greater-than-usual pressure with ionized neon and argon. [2] Three years later, Parker was artist-in-residence at the Exploratorium in San Francisco and created two installations using this technology, entitled Quiet Lightning and AM Lightning. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Parker has also exhibited at the MIT Museum, [6] [7] [8] [9] the New York Hall of Science, [10] and the Housatonic Museum at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Connecticut. [11] He was the youngest Fellow at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies. [12] Plasma globes based on his designs were commercially popular in the 1980s [13] [14] and “are found in nearly every science museum in the world". [15]
In the 1980s, Parker founded Diffraction Ltd, [15] [16] a defense electro-optics developer that was purchased by the O'Gara Group in 2005. [17] and in 2006 he spun off another company, Creative MicroSystems, focusing on microfluidics. [16] He maintains a studio in Waitsfield, Vermont, and in 2008 he was elected to the Waitsfield select board. [18] [19]
William P. Parker is an American artist, scientist, and entrepreneur, best known for inventing the modern design of the plasma globe. [1] The invention occurred in 1971, when Parker was working as a student in a physics laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and accidentally filled a test chamber to a greater-than-usual pressure with ionized neon and argon. [2] Three years later, Parker was artist-in-residence at the Exploratorium in San Francisco and created two installations using this technology, entitled Quiet Lightning and AM Lightning. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Parker has also exhibited at the MIT Museum, [6] [7] [8] [9] the New York Hall of Science, [10] and the Housatonic Museum at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Connecticut. [11] He was the youngest Fellow at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies. [12] Plasma globes based on his designs were commercially popular in the 1980s [13] [14] and “are found in nearly every science museum in the world". [15]
In the 1980s, Parker founded Diffraction Ltd, [15] [16] a defense electro-optics developer that was purchased by the O'Gara Group in 2005. [17] and in 2006 he spun off another company, Creative MicroSystems, focusing on microfluidics. [16] He maintains a studio in Waitsfield, Vermont, and in 2008 he was elected to the Waitsfield select board. [18] [19]