Mark B. Barron (born Mark Bowen; 1958) is an American entrepreneur and inventor. He is the founder of Public Transportation Safety International Corporation (PTS), which invented and produces the S-1 Gard Dangerzone Deflector for transit buses and the Minimize Danger Zone (MDZ) Shield for school buses.

Early life

Mark Barron was born in San Diego, California. At the age of five, he and his family relocated to Los Angeles, CA. His parents were divorced by the time he was eleven years old; subsequently, he was sent to reform school.

Professional life

Barron is who invented and patented the Chemo Cap, a therapeutic hypothermic device, in 1979. The Chemo Cap was designed to prevent

alopecia Hair loss, also known as alopecia or baldness, refers to a loss of hair from part of the head or body. Typically at least the head is involved. The severity of hair loss can vary from a small area to the entire body. Inflammation or scarring ...

from

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

treatment by freezing the scalp and decreasing blood flow to areas of hair growth during administration of the drug. While success was initially limited, more recent "cold caps" have recently achieved more widespread adoption and shown success rates of 80 to 90 percent with certain chemotherapy regimens, in addition to helping prevent

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, spasticity, stiff muscles, Paresis, weak muscles, and tremors. There may b ...

in babies, providing

neuroprotection Neuroprotection refers to the relative preservation of neuronal structure and/or function. In the case of an ongoing insult (a neurodegenerative insult) the relative preservation of neuronal integrity implies a reduction in the rate of neuronal l ...

after cardiac arrest, inhibiting stroke paralysis, and as cryotherapy for migraine headaches. In subsequent years, he launched ventures in long distance telecommunications and legal referral consulting.

Public Transportation Safety Int'l Corp.

In 1994, Barron invented the S-1 Gard Dangerzone Deflector and founded Public Transportation Safety International. The S-1 Gard is a device installed in front of the dual right rear wheels of transit buses, engineered to deflect a person out of the path of the wheels, preventing injury or death. It is currently installed on bus fleets in major cities such as Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago and Baltimore. In 2010, PTS launched the MDZ Shield as an alternative to the S-1 Gard for school buses.

Bel Air X

''Bel Air X'' is a on-demand telepresent service application which utilizes personal assistants who will go to stores or merchants and purchase items for consumers. ''Bel Air X'' is unique in that the personal assistant can transmit images of the items via an imaging capturing device from the store to the consumer so they can see what the item looks like as if the consumer was actually there in-person. The assistant can also show other similar products to the consumer if they prefer to make product substitutions.

Personal life

In 2005, Barron purchased the home of music producer

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received List of awards and nominations re ...

in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles. The home was previously occupied by singer

Connie Francis Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero ( ; born December 12, 1937), known as Connie Francis, is a retired American Pop music, pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. She is estimated to have sold more th ...

, and later singer

Julio Iglesias Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (; born 23 September 1943) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and one of the top List of best-selling music artists, reco ...

, who made it famous in 1984 by naming his multi-platinum album 1100 Bel Air Place after the home. In 2010, Mark Bowen legally changed his name to Mark Bowen Barron.April 22, 2010. ''Metropolitan News-Enterprise'', Los Angeles, CA.

References

External links

Mark B. Barron (Personal Site)

S-1 GARD (Official Site)

MDZ Shield (Official Site)

Consumeron (Official Site)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barron, Mark B. 1958 births 20th-century American inventors Businesspeople from Los Angeles Living people People from Bel Air, Los Angeles