SPORN, PHILIP

SPORN, PHILIP (1896–1978), U.S. electrical engineer. Sporn was born in Galicia, and taken to the United States in 1907. He joined the staff of the American Electric Power Company in 1920 and held many positions in this company, including chief engineer, executive vice president, and chairman of development. He was also president of the Electric Power Service Corporation, the Indiana-Kentucky and Ohio Valley Electric Corporations, and the Nuclear Power Group. Sporn served in various consultative capacities with numerous studies and projects on nuclear power production under the aegis of the U.S. government, the Atomic Energy Commission, the National Research Council, and large companies. He was vice president of the American Nuclear Society. Sporn was chairman of the Seawater Conversion Commission of the government of Israel. As well as papers on the generation and distribution of electric power, he wrote (with Ambrose and Baumeister) Heat Pumps (1947) and Integrated Power System as the Basic Mechanism for Power Supply (1950). He received many awards. (Samuel Aaron Miller)