The origins of Particle Beam Lasers, Inc. (PBL) date back to May, 1984 when it was incorporated in the State of Wisconsin and opened its headquarters in Madison, WI. Its first successful SBIR was in 1986 on a project entitled “Design of a Multistage Electron Beam Collector to Enable Free Electron Laser Power Source Development”. The technology developed under that SBIR was related to technology later used at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in its accelerator division in the early 1990’s. PBL was dormant for many years as the company principals were pursuing other research. Then, in the mid 2000’s with a new emphasis on superconducting magnet development, PBL performed excellent research, with record breaking achievements through the early 2010’s. Today, PBL continues its exciting work on revolutionary high field magnet technology. We are presently headquartered in Waxahachie, TX and also have offices and employees located in California, New York, Maryland and Massachusetts.
PBL, Inc., has some of the most experienced magnet designers, experts, and senior managers in the world: Dr. Ronald Scanlan (retired head of the LBNL Superconducting Magnet Group); PBL collaborator Dr. Ramesh Gupta (BNL Superconducting Magnet Division scientist leading the HTS magnet R&D group); Mr. Robert Weggel (retired assistant head of magnet design at the Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory at MIT); Dr. Erich Willen (retired head of the BNL Superconducting Magnet Division); Dr. Al Zeller (retired associate project manager at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams); and Dr. Stephan Kahn (35 years of expertise on superconducting magnets). Each of the aforementioned have made many contributions in the field of accelerator magnets as can be seen in the brief bios elsewhere on this website. PBL’s President, Mr. James Kolonko, has almost 50 years of experience administrating federal and state contracts and grants and overseeing the business operations of large (multi-million dollar) science projects. PBL’s Executive-Vice-President and Director of Marketing, Dr. Delbert Larson, has decades of experience in accelerator physics and with the patent application process.
PBL has developed a strong collaboration with the BNL Superconducting Magnet Division (SMD) which has a staff of over forty full time employees including scientists, engineers and technicians. PBL has a unique team of highly qualified engineering and scientific professionals. PBL uses the combined expertise of the BNL/PBL team in designing, procuring parts (some are highly specialized) and overseeing the construction and testing of superconducting magnets. Building and testing of high field magnets requires several expensive tooling and test facilities costing tens of millions of dollars. Since that is beyond the present budget of the company, PBL uses the facilities and expertise of the staff at the BNL magnet division. It has signed a formal agreement with BNL on the intellectual and other rights of the technology developed.
PBL History
Our Team Members
Meet our team of cutting-edge scientists with a 150 years of combined experience.