Dr. Leidecker attended The Catholic University of America, graduating with a BA in 1963 (Physics Major; Philosophy Minor, Sigma Xi) and a PhD in Physics in 1968.

Dissertation: The Temperature and Frequency Dependence of the Dielectric Response of Linear Polymers Computed Using Two-Time Temperature-Dependent Green Function.

He was a professor of physics at The American University from 1967 to 1985, and graduated 10 PhD students, and several Masters students. He taught courses in Thermodynamics, Statistical Mechanics, Classical Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics, Electricity & Magnetism, Solid State Physics, and Methods of Mathematical Physics, among others.

He was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories during the summer of 1969. He has worked at Goddard Space Flight Center in the Materials Branch from 1985 to 1996, in the Assurance Technologies Division from 1996 to the GSFC reorganization, and in Code 562 to the present.

He has received a number of awards while at Goddard, including the

• "QASAR Award for Safety & Mission Assurance" for contributions to the safety of NASA programs for 1999 and again for 2000;

• "Robert C. Baumann Memorial Award For Contributions to Mission Success" 2000;

• "Flight Awareness Award" 2001;

• The Washington Academy of Sciences presented him with their annual award for Physical Sciences in 2001;

• "NASA Agency Exceptional Service Medal" 2003;

• "NASA Agency Outstanding Leadership Award" for 2004

• "GSFC Award of Merit" 2004

• "NASA Agency Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal" 2005

He has a patent awarded for the manufacturing of nanotubes in 2004.

He is a member of the GSFC Senior Fellows (currently serving as chair).

He is a member of the NESC (avionics section) and has participated in six NESC activities in the last two years.

He was an invited speaker at the 2005 Materials Research Society (MRS) 2005 Spring meeting (San Francisco), presenting on GSFC's experiences with laser diode arrays; also, presented an invited lecture on the reliabiltiy of laser diode arrays and selected other optical elements.

He was invited to chair the International Tin Whiskers Workshop for the Spring Meeting (Orlando) of the Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC); this workshop was sponsored by the International Electronics Manufacturing Initative (iNEMI).

He is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Ethiopian Community Development Council, Inc., and is serving as the Chairman of the Board 2000 -- 2001.

He is married to Ms. Allene F. Wright.

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Some publications

• H. Leidecker, "How to make a telescope", Boy's Life, 1952.

• H. Leidecker, John LaMachhia, "Deconvolution of an instrument function", Journal of the Acoustical Society, 1964.

• Callen, E., and Leidecker, H., Jr. (1971). "A mean life on the Supreme Court." American Bar Association Journal 57 1188--92.  [This is the second paper in a series that has now grown to more than a hundred papers. The first was published in 1936, and languished. I argue that our paper started the present series.]

• C. Braun and H. Leidecker, "Rotation and vibration spectra for the HO dimer Theory and comparison with experimental data," J. Chem. Phys. 61, 3104-3113 (1974). [This is quoted in the bibliography of the "water vapor continuum" website, and was the first of its type.]

• Kestner J.M., Leidecker H.W., Iron J.R., Smith J.A., Brakke T.W., Horning N.A. (1988), Goniometric observations of light scattered from soils and leaves, J. Wave-Mater. Interaction, 3(2)189-198.

• Ralph Kahn and Henning Leidecker, "The Crush of New Earth Science Data Knocking at Our Door". Renewable Resources Journal, Volume 7 Number 1 - Winter 1989

• Henning Leidecker, "Elastic Moduli and Damping of Vibrational Modes of Aluminum/Silicon Carbide Composite Beams", NASA Technical Memorandum 104626, March 1996

• R. F. Cahalan, H. Leidecker, and G. Cahalan, "Chaotic rhythms of a dripping faucet," Comput. Phys. 4, 368-383, 1990.

• Henning Leidecker/GSFC, "NDE of Microelectronics II," 5th NDE Working Group (NNWG) Workshop, February 18 to 20, 1998

• R. Reed, K. LaBel, H. Kim, H. Leidecker and J. Lohr. "Test Report of Proton and Neutron Exposures of Devices that Utilize Optical Components and are Contained in the CIRS Instrument". 1998.  http//radhome.gsfc.nasa.gov/radhome/papers.htm

• H. Leidecker, S. Hull, "Vibration-induced Fatigue Failures in Bonding Wires Used in Stacked Chip Modules. ISTFA Boulder Conference, 1998.

• Floyd, S. R., J. I. Trombka, P. E. Clark, R. Starf, H. W. Leidecker, J. O. Goldsten, and D. R. Roth 1998. "Radiation effects on the proportional counter X-ray detectors on board the NEAR spacecraft." Nucl. Inst. Meth. Phys. Res. A 422, 577--581.

• K. A. LaBel, P. W. Marshall, J. L. Barth, R. B. Katz, R. A. Reed, H. Leidecker, H. A. Kim, and C. J. Marshall, "Anatomy of an InFlight Anomaly Investigation of Proton-Induced SEE Test Results for Stacked IBM DRAMs", IEEE NSREC 1998, Newport Beach, CA, July 1998.

• R. Lundquist and H. Leidecker, "Cable Bundle Wire Derating," EEELinks. Dec 1998

• J. Plante, N. Helmold, H. Leidecker, "Diamond as a Microelectronic Material with Potential for Space Applications," September 1998

• H. Leidecker, J. Slonaker, "Evacuated FM08 Fuses Carry a Sustained Arc in a Bus over 75 VDC." 25th International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis, pp. 225--229. November 14--18, 1999.

• H. Leidecker and J. Plante. "ISS Fiber Optic Failure Investigation Root Cause Report" August 2000.

• H. Leidecker, and J.S. Kadesch, "Effects of Uralane Conformal Coating on Tin Whisker Growth", Proceedings of IMAPS Nordic, The 37th IMAPS Nordic Annual Conference, pp. 108-116, September, 10-13, 2000.

• J. Benavides, H. Leidecker, H. Shaw, D.M. Preston.  Nanotechnology Initiative at Goddard Space Flight Center - Fabrication, Analysis, Applications, Partners, Future Directions, Nanotube 2001 Conference, http//www.nanotube.org/program.html

• In addition, he has authored numerous memos and reports that have influenced project decisions, including one for the TDRS project on the deep level dielectric charging of an antenna substrate under space radiations, and the resulting attraction of the thermal blanket, resulting in the substandard performance of the antenna: this was influential in Boeing's decision that the antenna did not meet specifications. And one on the application of Weibull analysis to the decision to manifest gyros for the upcoming Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. .

 

Seminars: 2005 MAPLD International Conference