February 24, 2023
As a PhD graduation present, UMD physics alumnus Jonathan Hoffman’s adviser gave him a signed copy of the book Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. The book follows John Harrison, an 18th-century carpenter who took it upon himself to solve what was known as the longitude problem by building a series of 5 clocks, the best timekeepers to date. Eight years later, as a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Hoffman has started a new program called H6 seeking to build a spiritual successor to Harrison’s clocks: a “6th clock” that would be a compact, affordable, and precise device that would help navigate in situations where a GPS signal is unavailable.
