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%JULIUS ADAMS STRATTON, eminent scientist, educator, leacler of
institutions, en cl an important figure in the ultimate establish-
ment of the National Academy of Engineering, cried on June
22, 1994. He was ninety-three years oIci.
Dr. Stratton grew up in Seattle, Washington, where he was
born on May IS, 1901, and attencled the University of Wash-
ington for one year before transferring to the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), from which he received his
bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1923. He spent
the following year in France at the Universities of Grenoble
and Toulouse, returning to the institute for his master's cle-
gree, also in electrical engineering, which was awarclecl in 1926.
With an institute traveling fellowship for study abroad, he en-
rolled at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich
and received his doctorate in mathematical physics in 1928.
He then returned to MIT as an assistant professor of electrical
engineering and proceeded through the ranks to a full profes-
sorship in the Department of Physics to which he hacl
transferred in 1930.
In the late twenties he hac! joined with other young faculty
members returning from study abroac! in urging substantial cur-
ricular reform, particularly in physics, in the light of recent
clevelopments in the fielcl. His eventual transfer to that depart-
ment had been anticipated when he returned to Cambridge in
JULIUS ADAMS STRATTON
1 901-1 994
BY EDWARD E. DAVID, JR.
243
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
192S, and it occurred at an important time of change, coincid-
ing with the appointment of Karl T. Compton as president. A
strong believer in "science for its own sake" and also as an impor-
tant source of enrichment for engineering education, Compton
would soon take steps leading to major changes in the depart-
ment among them, the appointment of John C. Slater as its
leader. The physics curriculum was revised, en c! plans went for-
ward for increased opportunities for graduate work in both
theoretical and experimental physics.
Dr. Stratton's research prior to World War IT focused on
short electromagnetic waves their launching, propagation,
and reception- and was carried out at the institute's Round
Hill Field Station in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Out of
this work came a deep understanding of radio systems at all
frequencies, but more important was the development of tools
drawn from Maxwell's equations for analysis, design, and the
implementation of such systems. This fundamental under-
stancling was later to become important to the development
of microwave radar cluring WorIcl War IT and for the emer-
gence of microwave radio, wiclely used today in telephone,
television, en cl ciata communication. Through this work MIT
macle major contributions to communications technology that
has evolvecl over the years, and Dr. Stratton was an early con-
tributor. His seminal writings en c! publications on
electromagnetic theory were registered in his 1941 book by
that name. Electromagnetic Theory is still in use today.
In 1940 he joined the famous Radiation Laboratory, which
developed microwave radar and pioneered the LORAN navi-
gation system. At that time he was a member of the Theory
Group. By 1942 and for the remainder of World War II he was
in Washington as an expert consultant to Secretary of War
Henry L. Stimson. There he worked on radio guidance sys-
tems for aircraft, ground-based radar, and all-weather flying
systems, leading naturally to his assistance in the planning for
the use of railer in the Normandy invasion. For his contribu-
tions to the war effort, he was awarded the United States Medal
for Merit not only for his "tireless efforts and skillful applica
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JULIUS ADAMS STRATTON
245
tion of his professional knowledge," but also for his judgment
and his "unique tact and vision in enlisting the active coopera-
tion of industry and the development agencies."
In the words of Dr. Stratton, the Radiation Laboratory had
produced more than "hardware." It had also produced "enor-
mous advances in the entire field of electronics," a field
encompassing the disciplines of both physics and electrical
engineering. When the laboratory was disbanded at the end
of World War IT, the institute was ready with a proposal put
forth by John C. Slater to continue this important work
through a "new kind of laboratory" to be established jointly by
~ , ,
his department of physics and that of electrical engineering.
By late 1944 Dr. Stratton had been chosen leader, and he
played a key role in its founding and in negotiating its sup-
port through a "tri-services" research contract. On July I, 1946,
the Radiation Laboratory's Basic Research Division, which he
had headed for several months, became the nucleus of the
institute's new Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE).
During his tenure in this position, RLE became a major
resource for educating graduate students and some under-
graduates in carrying out both focused and fundamental
research. Among the activities he supported and encouraged
were construction of a linear particle accelerator, development
of technologies based on Norbert Wiener's mathematics, fun-
damental explorations in plasma physics, efforts in modeling
neurons and the nervous systems of animals and human be-
ings, analog computation and simulation, and various other
subjects truly an interdisciplinary mix at the cutting edge of
research. This pattern of interdisciplinary research and colle-
gial cooperation established by Dr. Stratton is still evident in
RLE. In 1980, and in keeping with this theme, William R.
Hewlett, an alumnus and founder of the Hewlett-Packard
Company, establisher] at MIT the Julius A. Stratton Professor-
ship in Electrical Engineering and Physics, to be held
alternately by a faculty member from these two departments.
The year 1949 brought a major change in his career. He
became the chief academic officer of MIT as its first provost,
with the addecl title of vice-president two years later. He was
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
named chancellor in 1956 and acting president late in 1957.
On January I, 1959, he took office as the eleventh president
of the institute. When he reached mandatory retirement age
in 1966, his influence had been felt throughout the institu-
tion for nearly two decades. During this time of change and
expansion, he had maintained a firm commitment to students,
the quality of their education and the environment in which
they lived and studied. A major building program had includ-
ed a much-needed dormitory for women, making possible an
increase in their enrollment. He hac] overseen the integration
of the humanities, social sciences, en cl management within
the context of the institute's central mission in science and
technology, and he had encouraged the growth of research
and interdisciplinary centers following the general pattern of
RLE. As he left the presidency, he was elected a life member
of the MIT Corporation.
In 1966 he moved to New York as chairman of the board for
the Ford Foundation, of which he had been a trustee since
1955. There he streamlined the board's function to allow more
time for in-clepth review of program trends, instituted a sys-
tem of board visiting committees for the various divisions, ant!
served as an influential spokesman in the cause of private phi-
lanthropy. When he reached yet another mandatory
retirement age, he returned to Cambridge, where he contin-
ued to be concerned with MIT affairs.
Dr. Stratton was elected! to the National Academy of Sciences
in 1950 and served as vice-president from 1961 to 1965. During
that period he chaired! an Academy committee to explore with
the Engineers' Joint Council the possibility of founding a similar
organization for engineering, proposals for which had been set
forth from time to time over the years. The road was not easy,
but in 1 964 a National Academy of Engineering (NAE), of which
he became a founding member, was established under the char-
ter of the Academy of Sciences, of which Frederick Seitz was then
president. He and Dr. Stratton have been credited with finding
acceptable bases for the NAE.
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JULIUS ADAMS STRATTON
247
His service to the engineering and scientific community was
continuous and distinguished. He was a member of the Na-
tional Science Boarcl and its Executive Committee from 1956
to 1962 anti was reappointed in 1964. He resigned in 1967,
however, when he was appointed by President Lyndon B.
Johnson as chairman of the Commission on Marine Science,
Engineering, and Resources recently established by Congress.
Two years later their thorough review of the entire field and
its relation to national needs appeared! in a landmark report,
Our Nation and the Sea, which led to the establishment of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
a Coastal Zone Management Program, and the National Advi-
sory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere (NACOA) on
which Dr. Stratton served from 1971 to 1973. He was a life
trustee of the Boston Museum of Science en cl served on the
board of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory.
In the field of education he was a trustee of Vassar College
.
and Pine Manor College and the Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching and also served for several years on
the board of the ESSO (now Exxon) Education Foundation.
His awards and decorations were legion and includes! the
Medal of Honor of the Institute of Radio Engineers (now the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers tIEEE] ), and
the Faraday Medal of the British Institution of Electrical Engi-
neers. He was an officer of the French Legion of Honor, a
knight commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Re-
public of Germany, and a commander of the Colombian
Order of Boyaca. He held seventeen honorary degrees from
institutions both here and abroad. He was in abolition a life
fellow of the IEEE, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, and the American Physical Society, and a member
of the American Philosophical Society.
This recitation could go for many pages. However, the two
dominating features of Dr. Stratton's character were evident
in all of his activities. The first of these was his insistence on
excellence and integrity. He was a protagonist of the first-rate,
recognizing that the futures for institutions and nations lay in
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
cultivating excellence through people and their education.
The second of his traits concerned people, students, and hu-
manity. Though he nourished quality, he recognized that
people grow in their abilities, some later, some sooner. His
philosophy made room for all those climbing toward achieve-
ment. He aided such people personally and through
institutional policies. His balance between excellence and
compassion for individuals led to the respect and regard in
which he was held by all who knew him.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
adams stratton
