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Aster Enterprises, Inc.

Acton, Massachusetts

A short history of Aster Enterprises, Inc.:

Klaus Halbach and his colleague Ron Holsinger, Halbach's son-in-law and Aster’s founder, created the famous POISSON package of computer codes for magnetic system design, still in use today. Halbach went on to become one of the world's premier designers and developers of permanent magnets for use as insertion devices -- wigglers and undulators -- in synchrotron light sources and free electron lasers.

As a world authority on the design of magnetic systems, Halbach was a consultant to accelerator projects and synchrotron light sources around the world, including the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory. All of the premier radiation sources within these machines depend upon the permanent magnet technology now known as the Halbach Array.

Klaus Halbach officially retired from Berkeley Lab in 1991. Aster was founded on April 23, 1991 by Ron Holsinger, Halbach's son-in-law.

Klaus Halbach made contributions to such diverse projects as magnets for a miniature cyclotron that could be used for medical radioisotope production, magnets and low-friction magnetic bearings for an electromechanical battery, and the design of miniature permanent magnet NMR spectrometers for future Mars lander missions. The ALS now gives out an annual award to recognize excellence in instrumentation design and development called the Klaus Halbach Award.