John Fitzallen Moore (February 23, 1928 – January 31, 2018) was 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 cau ...
, the son of authors
Virginia Moore and
Louis Untermeyer
Louis Untermeyer (October 1, 1885 – December 18, 1977) was an American poet, anthologist, critic, and editor. He was appointed the fourteenth Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1961.
Life and career
Untermeyer was born in New Y ...
. His last name was legally changed after his parents' divorce. His work in military electronics, communications, and
spectroscopy culminated in medical electronics and x-ray products with the founding of the company Bio-Imaging Research.
Early life
After attending schools in
Scottsville, Virginia
Scottsville is a town in Albemarle, Buckingham and Fluvanna counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 566 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Charlottesville Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
According tScottsville's ...
and
High Mowing School in
Wilton, New Hampshire
Wilton is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,896 at the 2020 census. Like many small New England towns, it grew up around water-powered textile mills, but is now a rural bedroom community with some m ...
, Moore received a B.S. in
nuclear physics
Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter.
Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...
from
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
in three years (where he and Walter Marvin Jr. founded the
Tech Model Railroad Club
The Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC) is a student organization at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Historically it has been a wellspring of hacker culture and the oldest such hacking group in North America. Formed in 1946, its HO sc ...
in 1946), and won a
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 ...
fellowship that led to an M.S. in solid-state physics from
Harvard's School of Applied Science.
Professional career
His first full-time employment was at
Raytheon
Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitali ...
in
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, ...
, where he worked on
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...
and
telemetry
Telemetry is the in situ collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Greek roots ''tele'', "remote", an ...
. At Hycon Eastern (
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...
; later acquired by
Northrop), he moved from classified missile technology to become Systems Manager of a communications design office in
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...
,
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
. On his return, he again worked in aircraft and missile telemetry as Director of Research and Engineering at ASCOP (
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...
; later a division of EMR/
Schlumberger).
In 1960, he joined
Lockheed Electronics in
Plainfield, New Jersey
Plainfield is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, known by its nickname as "The Queen City." , where he advanced from Manager of Operations Analysis to Scientific Advisor to the President, while contributing to "
moon-bounce" communication systems and optical signal processors, and creating an infrared laboratory and corporate acquisition analysis. While there, he was appointed to the Lockheed Corporate Research Council, and also attended
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 ...
in New York half-time. For the latter, his Ph.D. thesis proved experimentally that
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...
in the atmosphere of
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
has enough
greenhouse effect
The greenhouse effect is a process that occurs when energy from a planet's host star goes through the planet's atmosphere and heats the planet's surface, but greenhouse gases in the atmosphere prevent some of the heat from returning directly ...
to warm its surface to the spacecraft-observed temperature of over 460 °C (860 °F).
After receiving his doctorate, Moore created new designs in spectroscopy and
fluorometry
Fluorescence spectroscopy (also known as fluorimetry or spectrofluorometry) is a type of electromagnetic spectroscopy that analyzes fluorescence from a sample. It involves using a beam of light, usually ultraviolet light, that excites the elect ...
as Director of Product Development at Spex Industries in
Metuchen, New Jersey
Metuchen ( ) is a suburban borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The borough is a commuter town of New York City, located in the heart of the Raritan Valley region within the New York Metropolitan area. The borough, along wit ...
. In 1976 he joined EMI Medical, the inventor of
X-ray CT scanning, in
Northbrook, Illinois. There, he advanced to Vice-President of Engineering, and built the team that created the first CT scanner to take a picture in under 3 seconds. When EMI got out of the medical electronics business, he founded Bio-Imaging Research (
Lincolnshire, Illinois
Lincolnshire is a village in Vernon Township, Lake County, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The village is a northern suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 7,940. Lincolnshire was incorporated on August 5, 1957, from the un ...
). Initially, BIR created the world's first one-second CT scanner for
Toshiba
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, ...
, and then branched into
MRI
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves ...
,
ultrasound
Ultrasound is sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is not different from "normal" (audible) sound in its physical properties, except that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies ...
, and industrial x-ray scanners, including the megavolt x-ray systems that inspect trucks and cargo containers at ports and border crossings. He was awarded the Chicago Area High-Tech Entrepreneur of the Year in 1987 and 1989. In 2006, he sold BIR's medical division to Toshiba Medical, and in 2007 sold its industrial and security divisions to
Varian Medical Systems
Varian Medical Systems is an American radiation oncology treatments and software maker based in Palo Alto, California. Their medical devices include linear accelerators (LINACs) and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions wi ...
.
Moore served on several standards committees for medical imaging, and was Chairman of the Surface Weapons Board of the U.S. Naval Research Advisory Committee. He has published and presented numerous papers, including before the
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of ...
in
Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
. He retired after 27 years on the board of
TC Manufacturing, and consulted in medical and radiation physics until passing away in 2018.
Personal life
He had five children (Robin
eceased Sheila, Marjorie, Deborah
eceased and Laurel) by his first marriage in 1948 to Joan Elizabeth Sanders (1928–1998), and two children (Jonathan Moore and
Cris Moore) by his second marriage in 1963 to Betty-Ann Jorgensen (1938- ). He collected original-cast musical comedy recordings and license plates, and his other interests included N-scale model railroading, mathematical games, and science fiction.
Patents
Moore's patents
include:
* 2,742,639 Signal comparison systems
* 2,746,032 Tracking control system
* 3,600,594 Fiber optics pulse width modulator
* 4,181,858 Adjustable compensating device for radiographic apparatus
* 4,185,195 Construction of collimators and/or detectors for penetrating radiation
* 4,222,104 Radiography
* 4,504,962 Computerized tomography
* 4,641,119 Laminar magnet for magnetic resonance device and method of making same
* 4,672,208 Particle detector crystal and related particle detector assembly
* 4,717,962 Method for compressing and reconstructing a data representation of a picture
* 4,733,082 Gamma ray camera methods and apparatus employing cooled scintillation crystal
* 4,969,165 Automatic dynamic focusing for computed tomography
* 4,984,257 Automatic dynamic focusing for computed tomography
* 4,989,225 CAT scanner with simultaneous translation and rotation of objects
* 5,010,254 System for communicating energy between relatively moving devices
* 5,661,774 Dual energy power supply
* 6,463,122 Mammography of computer tomography for imaging and therapy
* 6,683,935 Computed tomography with virtual tilt and angulation
* 6,785,357 High energy x-ray mobile cargo inspection system with penumbra collimator
* 7,133,491 Traveling x-ray inspection system with collimators
* 7,486,761 Computed tomography facilitation method and apparatus
* 8,053,745 Device and method for administering particle beam therapy
Pending:
* Method... to facilitate formation of a two-dimensional image using x-ray fan beam scatter
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, John Fitzallen
1928 births
2018 deaths
American physicists
Waldorf school alumni
Columbia University alumni
Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni
MIT Department of Physics alumni