Bulgarian Science and Maths Activity

PETAR PETROFF

ONE BULGARIAN WHO DIDN'T WANT TO BE ORDINARY







He is an inventor , engineer,NASA scientist, and adventurer. He was
instrumental in the evolution of the NASA space program, and was
one of the most prolific inventors of the second half of the 20th
century. Among his many accomplishments, Petroff developed the
world's first computerized pollution monitoring system,
telemetry devices for the world's first wireless heart
monitor , the first digital watch, and many other important
devices and methods. Petroff founded Care Electrics. After a
merger , the company became Electro/ Data . AS CEO, Petrof led the
company to develop the first digital watch Pulsar (watch), licensing
it to Hamilton Watch , which first sold it for 2,100 dollars.


BIOGRAPHY

Born in Brestovitsa, Bulgaria, Petar Petroff arrived in Toronto in 1951 via wartime France and Germany. He graduated in electrical engineering at what is now Stuttgart University in 1947. He worked on arctic engineering and construction projects for the United States Air Force at Goose Bay, Labrador, and Thule, Greenland.

He went to Indochina in 1956 for assignments in bridge and power-plant construction. Three years later, he sailed a 65-foot catamaran of his own design to Melbourne, Fla., where he joined the space projects carried out by a precursor of the Harris Corporation . He helped design systems for the early weather and communications satellites and organized the company's semiconductor division.

Moving to Huntsville in 1963, Mr. Petroff was recruited by Wernher von Braun for work on the new Saturn rocket for the Apollo space program. In that period, his employers were the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Boeing and Northrop, its contractors.

He went into business on his own in 1968, founding Care Electrics, a high-technology company that developed a wireless heart monitor for hospital use. The venture evolved into Electro/Data, which created the prototype of the digital watch.

Marketed by the Hamilton Watch Company as the Pulsar, the odd-looking device sold for $2,100 in 1971. (Fifteen years later, it was not unusual for digital watches to be given away as favors during baseball games.)

In 1975, Mr. Petroff and his sons founded ADS Environmental Services, a maker of computerized pollution monitoring equipment for the world market. He sold his interest in the company in 1995 but rejoined his sons as a consultant for Time Domain.