Buckminster Fuller in front of geodesic dome

R. Buckminster Fuller was referred to as an architect, inventor, scientist, engineer, mathematician, educator, philosopher, poet, speaker, author, consultant, economist, futurist, transcendentalist and designer. Twice expelled from Harvard University, he received 47 honorary doctorates in the arts, science, engineering and the humanities. He examined a vector system of geometry, energetic-synergetic geometry, based on the tetrahedron, which provides maximum strength with minimum structure.

Buckminster Fuller is best known for the invention of the geodesic dome –the lightest, strongest, and most cost-effective structure ever devised. The geodesic dome is a breakthrough in shelter, not only in cost-effectiveness, but also in ease of construction. Today over 300,000 domes dot the globe. Plastic and fiberglass "radomes" house delicate radar equipment along the Arctic

perimeter, corrugated metal domes give shelter to families in Africa (at a cost of $350 per dome) and the U.S. Marine Corps hailed the geodesic dome as "the first basic improvement in mobile military shelter in 2,600 years".

The world's largest aluminum clear-span structure is a geodesic dome that houses the "Spruce Goose" at Long Beach Harbor, but Fuller is most famous for his 20-story dome that housed the U.S. Pavilion at Montreal's Expo '67. Later, he documented the feasibility of a dome two

Stamp in honor of Buckminster Fuller

US pavilion at Montreal Expo	Dymaxion house

miles in diameter that would enclose mid-town Manhattan in a temperature-controlled environment, and pay for itself within ten years from the savings of snow-removal costs.

Fuller originated the term "Spaceship Earth". His Dymaxion™ Map was awarded the first patent for a cartographic system and was the first to show continents on a flat surface without visible distortion, appearing as a one-world island in a one-world ocean. His World Game® utilizes a large-scale Dymaxion Map for displaying world resources, and allows players to strategize solutions to global problems, matching human needs with resources. His Inventory of World Resources, Human Trends and Needs was created to serve as an information bank for the World Game.

Fuller has written 28 books that explore how all of humanity could have high living standards. In addition to his many honorary degrees, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan in 1981. Last but not least, the U.S. Postal Service has just released a commemorative stamp in his honor.

For more info go to www.bfi.org.