Ashleigh is a Planetarium director in Donegal
Background
Ash McFadden was born in the US, in Kansas, but moved to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at an early age. He attended primary school in Kansas, secondary in Colorado.
In 1965 he won the regional science fair aerospace award for an experiment to determine the effects of acceleration on mice, using rockets and a maze test he designed. He is credited with inventing the world’s first portable planetarium laser display system and holds the first licence granted by the US Bureau of Radiological Health to manufacture and sell laser display systems.
Degree
- Business (marketing, accounting) with physics, MacPherson College, Kansas, 1969.
He began a business degree as preparation for taking over the family jewellery business. This included a spell in Switzerland, studying watchmaking. His interests led him to take a range of other courses, including aeronautical engineering at Kansas State University, human anatomy and genetics.
Career snapshot
After college, he spent several “financially-successful but emotionally unfulfilling” years as a jeweller, gemologist, watchmaker, goldsmith and diamond-setter. During this time he continued his science education through reading, and found time to design and fly rockets and qualify for a commercial pilot’s licence, which he still holds.
His studies of micromechanics (watchmaking), optics (gemology) and electronics (building his own synthesizers) led to an interest in the then-new technology of laser applications. Eventually, he “saw the light” and left the entire jewelry business to found Laser Systems Development Corporation.
He financed the start-up through playing keyboards as a road musician for a dozen or so rock bands, flying freight around America in World War II surplus C-45s and performing in air shows.
He developed a laser display system that someone could carry under their arm, as compared with the lorry-sized systems then available, as well as marketing several CO2-based cutting and engraving systems for industrial and artistic applications.
He spent much of the next 25 years installing his lasers in planetariums across the US, as well as performing on his concert lasers. This led to lecturing about lasers and optics to students of all ages, as well as becoming the “ad-hoc technician for several budgetless educational institutions”.
Eventually, he left the company in the hands of his sons and took early retirement, settling in an old farm cottage near Tullamore, Co Offaly.
“A new planetarium was built in a Donegal museum during that time,” he says. “When the museum’s board of directors decided to enhance their attendance figures by instituting laser shows, they rang the man in America who had built their planetarium and asked him where they might find the best laser display designer in America. His answer was, ‘Tullamore’.”
What’s so brilliant about your job?
“Everything – the people I work with, the technology, the opportunities to promote science education, they all combine into a brilliant package. I’m a techno-nerd who has been entrusted with a state-of-the-art multimedia domed theatre and given carte blanche to promote science, our museum and Inishowen through what even I consider some fairly outrageous means, such as sport rocketry.”
What do you like least about your job?
“The hours. Although I designed the museum’s concert laser system as simply as I could make it, it is, nonetheless, extremely complex, both in terms of operation and maintenance. I’ve yet to find an understudy with the proper electronic, optical and musical credentials to both play the instrument in concert and maintain it in working order, necessitating a seven-day-per-week schedule for me during the summer season.”
How do you spend typical day?
“I hit the deck around 6 am, spend the first two or three hours solving problems for or consulting with business associates in America via email. Then I spend the rest of the morning ’slaving over a hot laser’, cutting and engraving everything from artistic one-off items to “tourist stuff” for various customers around Ireland.
“Around noon, I head for the museum, where I power up the planetarium and give shows all afternoon, ranging from Sir Arthur C Clarke’s planetarium production, ‘The New Cosmos’ to a children’s show called ‘Larry Cat in Space’ to performing ‘The Full Irish Laser Concert’ on the laser system.”
Does your work require a lot of equipment?
“Six or seven computers and a dozen or so lasers (I lose count) as well as video and slide projectors, a complete TV studio, DVD-authoring equipment and the planetarium instrument, itself. Not to mention all the explosives.”
Are you a science nerd?
“I believe that if you look up the term ‘nerd’ in the dictionary, the definition will be ‘Ash McFadden’.”
Did science give you a buzz at school?
“I was president of my high school science club and managed not to get expelled, despite blowing the windows out of the chemistry lab. (Twice.) It would be difficult to say who was the buzzer and who the buzee, but our science club and our advisors all managed to survive my leadership, have a grand time and learn a lot of science without incurring too much expensive property damage.”
What has been the highlight of your career to date?
“That would really depend on the time, because I’ve had several mini-careers which led to this one, each with its own highlights. I was seriously chuffed in 1993 when I was nominated for the International Laser Display Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, referring to me as ‘an icon of the laser industry’.
“It would be difficult to say whether I was more pleased then, or, earlier, when I performed stunt-piloting acts in air shows, or when I met Werner Von Braun, Willy Ley, Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov (together), or when I was onstage with music stars like Dick Clark, The Beach Boys, Hermans Hermits, The Drifters, Miriam Makeeba and Van Morrison (not together, thank goodness).
“Truly, though, I think living and working where I do is the highlight to top them all. Lots of people pay to holiday on Inishowen. I get paid to be here. Not much, mind you, but is that cool or what?”
