National Academies Press: OpenBook

Memorial Tributes: Volume 8 (1996)

Chapter: Julius Adams Stratton

« Previous: Robert L. Smith
Suggested Citation:"Julius Adams Stratton." National Academy of Engineering. 1996. Memorial Tributes: Volume 8. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5427.
×
Page 242
Suggested Citation:"Julius Adams Stratton." National Academy of Engineering. 1996. Memorial Tributes: Volume 8. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5427.
×
Page 243
Suggested Citation:"Julius Adams Stratton." National Academy of Engineering. 1996. Memorial Tributes: Volume 8. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5427.
×
Page 244
Suggested Citation:"Julius Adams Stratton." National Academy of Engineering. 1996. Memorial Tributes: Volume 8. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5427.
×
Page 245
Suggested Citation:"Julius Adams Stratton." National Academy of Engineering. 1996. Memorial Tributes: Volume 8. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5427.
×
Page 246
Suggested Citation:"Julius Adams Stratton." National Academy of Engineering. 1996. Memorial Tributes: Volume 8. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5427.
×
Page 247
Suggested Citation:"Julius Adams Stratton." National Academy of Engineering. 1996. Memorial Tributes: Volume 8. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5427.
×
Page 248
Suggested Citation:"Julius Adams Stratton." National Academy of Engineering. 1996. Memorial Tributes: Volume 8. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5427.
×
Page 249

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

%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

244 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

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

246 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.

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

248 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.

Next: Verner Edward Suomi »
Memorial Tributes: Volume 8 Get This Book
×
Buy Hardback | $107.00 Buy Ebook | $84.99
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

This series presents biographies of deceased members of the National Academy of Engineering.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!