George Edward Alcorn Jr. (born March 22, 1940) is an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

, and professor. He taught at

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

and the

University of the District of Columbia The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public historically black land-grant university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1851 and is the only public university in the city. UDC is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall ...

, and worked primarily for IBM and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

. He has over 30 inventions and 8 patents resulting in his induction into the

National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a U.S. patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also opera ...

in 2015.

Early life

Alcorn was born on March 22 1940, to Arletta Dixon Alcorn and George Edward Alcorn, Sr., in

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

. They had another child, his younger brother Charles.

Education and Academic Career

Alcorn received a four-year academic scholarship to

Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...

in Los Angeles, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics. He received his degree with honors while earning eight letters in basketball and football. Alcorn earned a Master of Science in Nuclear Physics in 1963 from

, after nine months of study. During the summers of 1962 and 1963, he worked as a research engineer for the Space Division of

North American Rockwell North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included: the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-8 ...

. He was involved with the computer analysis of launch trajectories and orbital mechanics for Rockwell missiles, including the Titan I and II, the

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

and the

Nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

. After earning a PhD in Molecular and Atomic Physics from Howard University in 1967, he went on to hold teaching positions in electrical engineering at

and the

, eventually rising to the rank of full professor.

Private Industry Work

After earning his PhD, Alcorn spent twelve years working in the private sector. He held positions as senior scientist at

Philco-Ford Philco (an acronym for Philadelphia Battery Company) is an American electronics manufacturer headquartered in Philadelphia. Philco was a pioneer in battery, radio, and television production. In 1961, the company was purchased by Ford and, from 196 ...

, senior physicist at

Perkin-Elmer PerkinElmer, Inc., previously styled Perkin-Elmer, is an American global corporation focused in the business areas of diagnostics, life science research, food, environmental and industrial testing. Its capabilities include detection, imaging, inf ...

, and advisory engineer at IBM.

Inventions

Alcorn's best-known invention is the

X-ray spectrometer X-ray spectroscopy is a general term for several spectroscopic techniques for characterization of materials by using x-ray radiation. Characteristic X-ray spectroscopy When an electron from the inner shell of an atom is excited by the energy o ...

, which earned him the NASA–

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...

award for Inventor of the Year in 1984. Other significant inventions concerned

plasma etching Plasma etching is a form of plasma processing used to fabricate integrated circuits. It involves a high-speed stream of glow discharge (plasma) of an appropriate gas mixture being shot (in pulses) at a sample. The plasma source, known as etch speci ...

for semiconductor devices. In 1999, Alcorn was honored with an award from ''

Government Executive ''Government Executive'' is an American media publication based in Washington, D.C., that covers daily government business for civilians, federal bureaucrats, and military officials. ''Government Executive'' is part of GovExec, which is owned by ...

'' magazine for developing the Airborne LIDAR Topographic Mapping System (ALTMS) in partnership with the Houston Advanced Research Center. In 2015, Alcorn was inducted into the

for his invention of the X-ray spectrometer.

Personal life

Alcorn married his wife Marie DaVillier in 1969 and they have one son born in 1979. He later married Dorothy Green after the death of his first wife.

Patents issued

* #4,172,004, 10/23/1979, Method for forming dense dry etched multi-level metallurgy with non-overlapped vias * #4,201,800, 5/6/1980, Hardened photoresist master image mask process * #4,289,834, 9/15/1981, Dense dry etched multi-level metallurgy with non-overlapped vias * #4,472,728, 9/18/1984, Imaging X-ray spectrometer * #4,543,442, 9/24/1985, GaAs Schottky barrier photo-responsive device and method of fabrication * #4,618,380, 10/21/1986, Method of fabricating an imaging X-ray spectrometer * #4,062,720, 12/13/1977, Process for forming ledge-free aluminum copper silicon conductor structure * #3,986,912, 10/19/1976, Process for controlling the wall inclination of a plasma etched via hole

References

External links

George Edward Alcorn, African American History ProgramNSBP honors Dr. George Alcorn, Jr.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alcorn, George Edward Jr. 1940 births 21st-century American physicists Howard University alumni Living people African-American engineers 21st-century American engineers African-American inventors 20th-century American inventors Occidental College alumni People from Indianapolis 21st-century African-American scientists 20th-century African-American people