About Us

Dr. David L. Book

            Dr. Book, the founder of Enigmatics, Inc, received a BA in physics from Yale and a PhD in physics from Princeton, has carried out research in plasma physics and controlled thermonuclear fusion at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, General Atomics in San Diego (then a division of General Dynamics), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and as a visiting scientist at the International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, and Culham Laboratory in England.  During twenty years at the Naval Research Laboratory Dr. Book worked on plasma physics, fluid mechanics, and computational physics.  While at NRL he began collecting plasma physics reference data and formulas in a pocket sized booklet called the NRL Plasma Formulary.  Since its start almost a quarter century ago, nine editions and over 60,000 copies of the Formulary have been printed.  The Formulary is the most widely known publication in plasma physics.  Dr. Book is the author of over 100 refereed publications

Mr. Ben M. Gauthier

            Mr. Gauthier is a senior mechanical engineer at Enigmatics research laboratory who received his BS in Mechanical Engineering at Union College and his MS in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. Mr. Gauthier draws upon a strong theoretical and experimental background in transport phenomena, combustion chemistry, optical diagnostics and material synthesis. Previous experience involved fundamental and applied research at the High Temperature Gas Dynamics Laboratory (HTGL) at Stanford University, and the Aerogel Fabrication Characterization and Applications Laboratory (AFCAL). Current research interests include synthesis of nano-structured and amorphous materials, propellant development for pulsed detonation rocket engines, and modeling of combustion processes. His experience with combustion includes fundamental chemical kinetics, combustion modeling for applications including automobile engines, gas turbines, and pulsed detonation rocket engines, and application experience designing and operating combustion based experimental facilities related to propulsion, kinetic measurements and material synthesis. In particular, Mr. Gauthier has substantial experience working with and developing thermal spray systems, and has taken the lead on a wide variety of research efforts in the past five years.

Dr. Igor Vidensky

            Dr. Vidensky received his M.S. in Metallurgical Engineering in 1979 and Ph.D in Physics in 1983 from the Moscow Steel and Alloys Institute in Moscow, Russia. For the past 25 years he has worked as a Research Scientist with the Russian Academy of Science, Johns Hopkins University, and the Catholic University of America, on projects focused on high performance alloys for survival in extreme high-temperature and corrosive environments (liquid metals, glass melts, aqueous, etc), where his most recent work focused on nickel-chrome alloy materials exposed to molten salts and waste glass for nuclear storage applications. Since joining the team at Enigmatics, Dr. Vidensky has worked to expand Enigmatics coating diagnostic capabilities to include metallography, optical microscopy, and test cells for electrochemical measurements.

Contact Us

phone: 301-486-1725

email: info@enigmatics.com