Everard Mott Williams (February 2, 1915 – October 24, 1972), noted scientist and educator, was born in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...

. He received a Ph.D. from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in Electrical Engineering in 1939, served as the head of Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Electrical Engineering from 1952–1969 and has over 100 patents. The broad scope of his accomplishments include prolific invention, versatile engineering consulting, pioneering teaching methodology, and perceptive

academic administration Academic administration is a branch of university or college employees responsible for the maintenance and supervision of the institution and separate from the faculty or academics, although some personnel may have joint responsibilities. Some t ...

. He pioneered in programmed instruction and teaching machines, innovated

electric discharge An electric discharge is the release and transmission of electricity in an applied electric field through a medium such as a gas (ie., an outgoing flow of electric current through a non-metal medium).American Geophysical Union, National Research C ...

machining and contributed to

electronic countermeasures An electronic countermeasure (ECM) is an electrical or electronic device designed to trick or deceive radar, sonar, or other detection systems, like infrared (IR) or lasers. It may be used both offensively and defensively to deny targeting info ...

. Williams started his teaching career at Penn State in 1939, but with the declaration of war in 1942, became associated with the development branch special projects laboratory at

Wright Field Wilbur Wright Field was a military installation and an airfield used as a World War I pilot, mechanic, and armorer training facility and, under different designations, conducted United States Army Air Corps and Air Forces flight testing. Lo ...

as a Chief Branch Engineer. There he was concerned with work on radar, development of radio countermeasures, radio control for guided missiles, and infra red systems. He became an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University in 1945 and became head of the Electrical Engineering department in 1952.

Accomplishments

* Recipient of a 1938

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

Charles A. Coffin fellowship totalling $5,000 for advanced study and research. The fellowship was used to investigate the properties of

short-wave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...

transmitting antennas. *

Eta Kappa Nu Eta Kappa Nu () or IEEE-HKN is the international honor society of the Computer Science and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). "The organization promotes excellence in the profession and in education through an emphasi ...

recognition award - 1946. *

George Westinghouse George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age ...

professor of the Carnegie Mellon University. * Member

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...

, Tau Beta Pi, The

American Association of University Professors The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States. AAUP membership includes over 500 local campus chapters and 39 state organizations. The AAUP's stated mission is ...

, The

American Society of Engineering Education American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

. * 1952 awarded a $12,600 research grant by the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

to support research in the field of Phenomena Accompanying Transient Low Voltage Sparkover in Liquid Dielectrics. * Pittsburgh Man of the Year in 1959. * Most Outstanding Young Electrical Engineer in the United States in 1946. The award by the Eta Kappa Nu, national electrical engineering fraternity, goes to persons under 35, and out of college 10 years, who have performed "meritorious service in the interest of mankind.". * Cited by the President of the United States for "Outstanding fidelity and meritorious conduct in the aid of the war effort" in World War II. Awarded the President's Certificate of merit for World War II work on radar, guided missiles and infrared systems at Wright field in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater D ...

. * 1971 Western Electric Award for excellent instruction of engineering students. * Designed the oscillator and deflector for the $2,500,000

synchro-cyclotron A synchrocyclotron is a special type of cyclotron, patented by Edwin McMillan in 1952, in which the frequency of the driving RF electric field is varied to compensate for relativistic effects as the particles' velocity begins to approach the sp ...

Carnegie Tech Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

. * Developed a radar device during World War II which was used on US missiles from 1944 through 1960, which increased accuracy of directing the missile to its target. * Consultant to Firth Sterling, Carbide corp,

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

Ordnance Dept. * Member of the board of directors of Electronic Associates. * Served on NASA's research advisory committee on communications and data processing. * Holds more than 100 patents in radar, guided missiles, photographic equipment,

machine tool A machine tool is a machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformations. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or shaping. All ...

s, electronic organs, and radio receivers, transmitters and jamming devices.

References

* Eulogy published December 12, 1972 Carnegie Mellon University Faculty Senate * ''Meridian Morning Record'' April 23, 1938 * ''

Pittsburgh Press ''The Pittsburgh Press'' (formerly ''The Pittsburg Press'' and originally ''The Evening Penny Press'') was a major afternoon daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1884 to 1992. At one time, the ''Press'' was the second larg ...

'' January 27, 1938 * Carnegie Mellon Campus and Department news, 1952, Page 6 * ''Pittsburgh Press'', June 1952 * ''East Presbyterian Church Week'', January 17, 1958, Vol 11, No. 17 * ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', June 22, 1961

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Everard Mott Scientists from New Haven, Connecticut Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science alumni 20th-century American engineers 20th-century American inventors Carnegie Mellon University faculty 1915 births 1972 deaths