Ransom W. Stephens, Ph.D.

Applied Electrodynamics Physicist

Ransom’s Notes partners with the finest writers, the most brilliant scientists and engineers, the most talented graphic artists, and the most visionary marketing professionals - but more than that, we have the experience necessary to position them in a way that allows us to master any content or analysis opportunity.

A focused professional with a history of solving difficult problems in a wide variety of disciplines. History of accomplishments demonstrates the unique ability to adapt quickly and decisively in identifying and solving complicated problems as they emerge with new diverse techniques and little previous experience.

A talented speaker and author who communicates complicated subjects clearly but without oversimplification at any level of mathematical and cultural sophistication.

A solid collaborator with a successful history of leadership who brings a thorough understanding of business practice, economics, electrodynamics, optics, mathematics, statistics, quantum physics, relativity and their applications to product development, manufacture, marketing, and sales.

Employment History:

2007-Present     Ransom’s Notes, Petaluma CA

• Applied Electrodynamics Physicist - Writer and Public Speaker

2005-2007           Teraspeed Consulting Group, LLC, Petaluma CA

• Research Scientist/Writer • Public Speaker

2000-2005          Agilent Technologies, Inc., Santa Rosa California/Richardson Texas

• 2004-2005    Product Marketing Manager/Technical Marketing Engineer
• 2002-2004    Applied Electrodynamics Physicist
• 2000-2002    Applied Lightwave Scientist

1999-2000          Enhanced Messaging Systems, Southlake Texas

• Staff Engineer-Scientist & Director of Advanced Technology

1993-1999           University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington Texas

• January-July 1999, Associate Professor of Physics (tenured)
• 1993-1999, Assistant Professor of Physics

Research:

• ATLAS experiment, European Center for Particle Physics (CERN), Geneva Switzerland
• D-Zero experiment, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia Ill
• Solenoid Detector Collaboration, Superconducting Super Collider, Waxahachie TX

1990-1993    University of Florida

• Research Associate in Computational and Experimental Particle Physics
• Cornell Electron Storage Ring, Cleo-II collaboration, Ithaca NY

1986-1990    University of California, Santa Barbara

• Research Assistant in Experimental Particle Physics
• Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, TPC-Two-Gamma Collaboration, Menlo Park CA

Education:

1990     Ph.D. Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara

• Dissertation: The p+p-p0p0 Final State in Two Photon Physics
• Named the James Chadwick Scholar of the 1989 Ettore Majorana International School of Sub-Nuclear Physics, Erice, Sicily, Italy

1984     B.S. Physics (cum laude), University of California, San Diego

• 1982-1983, University of Birmingham, England, Education Abroad Program

1980     Las Lomas High School, Walnut Creek CA

Resume:

• Author of pivotal sales literature leading to sales of over $100M.
• High-Tech Industry recognized expert on noise and jitter analysis in extremely high data rate systems.
• Led Tektronix customer education efforts through series of sponsored web-seminars – Jitter 360 and Answering Next-Gen Serial Challenges – attendance of 15,000 with 87% advocacy giving an enormous number of sales leads. Deemed the highlight of Tektronix marketing year
• Answered NoiseCom’s customer doubts by performing an exhaustive statistical analysis of data from several of their products, writing an NIST-caliber white paper proving the sources performed as advertised and presenting results at DesignCon – their featured trade-show event.
• Represented Agilent Technologies on the standards committees for PCI Express, Fully Buffered DIMM, the Optical Internetworking Forum Common Electrical Interface (OIF/CEI), and UXPi.
• Led a high-tech commando team of engineers and scientists to determine the most accurate jitter techniques and distinguish them in the market through an internationally broadcast web-seminar, two white papers, three magazine articles, and three conference papers. Accounted for a surge in the sale of Bit Error Ratio Testers and paved the way for the introduction of Agilent Technology’s premier jitter analyzer, the 86100C DCA-J – over $100M in sales.
• Invented an optimized technique for measuring total jitter with some tricks from probability and statistics yielding a Total Jitter measurement more than 40 times faster than any other solution on the market. Vice President of Agilent’s Digital Verification Solutions Division said, “The new Fast TJ measurement makes a significant contribution to testing by reducing the measurement time from days to minutes.”
• Led Agilent’s Optical Networking Curriculum team in the development of presentation material on all topics of optical technology from basic to advanced levels of training for electrical engineers on fiber-optic applications. Toured the country giving seminars on basic and advanced topics to development engineers and qualitative presentations to executives and managers. Resulted in sales of over $50M worth of lightwave test equipment and a library of over 48 hours of seminar material.
• Introduced a new marketing concept – midway through a ten-minute presentation, Agilent’s Senior VP of Worldwide Sales picked up the phone and scheduled a meeting with his marketing team who took the concept and generated $4.5M in quotes in six months.
• Led development of a new wireless-web broadcast information delivery technology including the protocol, software, requirement specification, error correction and a proprietary modem technology.
• Devised new signal processing techniques to separate multiple signals and noise. Resulted in the discovery of a new state of matter, precision measurements of rare processes, new techniques for signal identification and characterization of particle physics processes.
• Solved a satellite telemetry problem, calibrated and led the implementation of resolution enhancement algorithms for the precise calculation of satellite positions. Provided timing information to satellite receivers with 1us accuracy – the crucial component of a system for satellite communications – that saved thousands of dollars per base station over the conventional GPS solution.
• Collaborated on the discovery of the Top Quark with the D-Zero collaboration at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Designed and implemented a multitasking computing system for massive production of simulated data. Led a team of four programmers in developing simulation and data processing software. Project was key to the discovery of the top quark and more than 40 other published measurements and particle physics discoveries.
• Introduced career-focused bachelor-level physics curricula: Physics/pre-med and Computational Physics, created new graduate and undergraduate courses in physics: Computational Techniques in Physics
• Solved magnetic shielding problem in the readout of highly sensitive photon detection devices. Led a team of five physicists in the simulation, prototype, design and assembly of the shielding configuration of a $2M component of the $120M D-Zero experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
• Led a team in producing 450 photon detectors from design optimization through prototyping to production and quality assurance. Wrote and implemented data acquisition software for these components of an $80M particle physics experiment. Made the world’s most accurate measurements of bottom-quark decays while collaborating on an experiment at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR).
• Discovered a new type of matter, the R(1525), a quark-anti-quark resonance including a “valence gluon.”
• Invented a low cost, nonintrusive technique for measuring and monitoring tension in high resistance 5 um diameter carbon fibers. Assured the quality of the device by early detection of slippage problems in wire fixtures. Invention enabled the construction of the most efficient particle identification device in the world.

Patents:

1. “Separation of Random and Deterministic Components of Jitter” - Patent # 7,149, 638
2. “Separation of a Random Component of Jitter and a Deterministic Component of Jitter” - Patent # 7,191,080
3. “System for Delivering Wireless Information Services to Messaging Devices” - Application 200200490049

Like a dragonfly, darting from task to task and mastering every  one.