Gardiner Luttrell Tucker (1925 – 2021) was an American scientist and former government official. He was the former director of

IBM Research IBM Research is the research and development division for IBM, an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. IBM Research is the largest industrial research org ...

and was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Analysis in the

Nixon administration Richard Nixon's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 37th president of the United States began with First inauguration of Richard Nixon, his first inauguration on January 20, 1969, and ended when he resigned on August 9, 1974 ...

. He also served as Assistant

Secretary General of NATO The secretary general of NATO is the chief civil servant of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The officeholder is an international diplomat responsible for coordinating the workings of the alliance, leading NATO's international staff ...

Biography

Tucker was born in 1925 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. His father, Ernest E. Tucker, was an osteopathic doctor who was on the staff of

LeRoy Sanitarium The LeRoy Sanitarium, later called the LeRoy Hospital, was a medical facility in New York, New York. It was founded in 1928 by Alice Fuller LeRoy and closed in 1980. Notable patients *actress Marguerite Clark entered as a patient and then died th ...

. Tucker graduated from the

Birch Wathen School The Birch Wathen Lenox School is a college preparatory K-12 school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Birch Wathen Lenox comprises approximately 500 students from all around New York City. The Birch Wathen Lenox School is one o ...

in 1943, and from Columbia College in 1947,

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

, with special distinction in mathematics and physics. In 1953, he received his PhD from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where he studied with

Isidor Isaac Rabi Isidor Isaac Rabi (; born Israel Isaac Rabi, July 29, 1898 – January 11, 1988) was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance, which is used in magnetic resonance im ...

. He was also a member of the

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 ...

honor society. A year before earning his doctorate from Columbia, he was recruited by

Wallace John Eckert Wallace John Eckert (June 19, 1902 – August 24, 1971) was an American astronomer, who directed the Thomas J. Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau at Columbia University which evolved into the research division of IBM. Life Wallace John Eckert ...

as a research physicist at the Watson Laboratory at

to help advance IBM's research capabilities in solid state physics. In 1954, he was promoted to physicist in charge of semiconductor research at

Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsi ...

. In 1957, he became manager of research analysis and planning staff of IBM's Poughkeepsie campus. In 1959, Tucker was made manager of IBM's

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

research laboratory and in 1961 advanced to Director of Development Engineering of the IBM World Trade Corporation. In January 1963, Tucker was named IBM's Director of Research. As Director of Research, Tucker launched a planning effort that pulled together staff from various divisions to determine what projects could be handled by existing technologies and what would require a radically different approach, streamlining the company's research and development agenda. He also started research into field effective transistors and related areas such as processing techniques, chemistry, lithography, and circuit design, laying the groundwork for IBM's

mainframe A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...

memories. In 1967, Tucker was invited to join the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

as Deputy

Director of Defense Research and Engineering The Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, abbreviated USD (R&E), is a senior official of the United States Department of Defense. The USD (R&E) is charged with the development and oversight of technology strategy for the DoD. T ...

for Electronics and Information Systems. In 1969, he was appointed Principal Deputy

before being named

Assistant Secretary of Defense Assistant Secretary of Defense is a title used for many high-level executive positions in the Office of the Secretary of Defense within the U.S. Department of Defense. The Assistant Secretary of Defense title is junior to Under Secretary of Defens ...

for Systems Analysis. Tucker assumed office in January 1970 and served in that position for three years before joining

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

as Assistant

Secretary General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

for Defense Support, a post he held from 1973 to 1976. From 1976 to 1985, Tucker was vice president for Science and Technology for

International Paper The International Paper Company is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 56,000 employees, and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. History The company was incorporated January 31 ...

. He also served as a director of

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...

and was the chairman of the technology committee and a member of the executive and audit committees. Tucker died in November 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Gardiner L. 1925 births 2021 deaths United States Assistant Secretaries of Defense Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni IBM people NATO personnel Nixon administration personnel American scientists Birch Wathen Lenox School alumni Scientists from New York City