William Gould Dow

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William Gould Dow
BornSeptember 30, 1895
IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal (1963)
Scientific career
Fieldselectrical engineering, space research, computer engineering, nuclear engineering
InstitutionsUniversity of Michigan
Environmental Research Institute of Michigan

William Gould Dow (September 30, 1895 – October 17, 1999) was an American

radar jamming technology during World War II, and was a long-time professor at the University of Michigan
.

Biography

Early life

Dow was born on September 30, 1895, in Faribault, Minnesota, to Dr. James J. Dow and the former Myra Brown,[1] who had had the distinction of being the first two students to graduate from Carleton College just months before their marriage in 1874.[2] He was the great-great-grandson of American Revolutionary War veteran Corporal Silas Gould.[3]

He attended the

National Bureau of Standards.[4] Upon leaving the Army in 1919, he took on a variety of sales and marketing positions, mainly selling electrical equipment for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation
.

Academia

In 1924, Dow married Edna Lois Sontag, and two years later he joined the

faculty of the University of Michigan as an instructor in electrical engineering. He obtained his MS from Michigan in 1927. While on the faculty, he wrote what would become a classic textbook in the field, Fundamentals of Engineering Electronics, published in 1937. He was made an associate professor
in 1938.

Dow obtained a contract from

MHz of alternating current. Although originally intended for use in automobile manufacturing, when the US entered World War II, GM instead put his technology into production manufacturing airplanes.[5]

In 1942, following the end of his GM contract, Dow went to work directly in support of the war effort at the

countermeasures, including both jamming of enemy radar signals and determining the location of enemy radar installations.[6] His work took him to London, where he narrowly avoided a V-2 rocket attack;[7] the V-2 would eventually play a large role in his post-war research. The radar-jamming countermeasures Dow worked on were nearly 100% effective, and were credited with saving the lives of many Allied pilots.[8]

After returning to the University of Michigan in 1945, Dow was made a full

Navy had begun a joint research program involving captured V-2 rockets. He arranged to attend the second meeting of the V-2 Upper Atmosphere Research Panel (later the Rocket and Satellite Research Panel or simply Rocket Research Panel),[7] and would remain a member of the panel until it ceased operation in 1960. Other influential contributors to space research were part of the panel including James Van Allen and, later, the father of the V-2 rocket, Wernher von Braun.[9]

The panel required all of its members to be actively engaged in relevant research, and as his first

atmospheric re-entry.[7]

During this same period of time, Dow helped start a number of various research laboratories at the University, including the Physics Research Lab, the Space Physics Research Lab, the Plasma Engineering Lab, and the

Willow Run Research Center and eventually the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan, or ERIM).[4]

In 1958, Dow was named

Chairman
of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, a position he would hold until 1964, when he retired from teaching. His wife Edna had died in 1963. After retiring from active teaching, he served part-time as a Senior Research Geophysicist in the Space Physics Research Lab until 1971. Dow remarried in 1968, to Katherine "Kitty" Keene, who would also pass away in 1997.

When ERIM split off from the University of Michigan in 1972, Dow became a member of its Board of Trustees. He left the board in 1990, but remained a Trustee Emeritus. During this time, Dow continued his research, now in the field of fusion power, with several more patents to his credit.

Later years

Dow remained active late in life, despite failing hearing. He continued to go into his two offices four days a week even after his 100th birthday, a milestone which the EECS Department commemorated by hosting a two-day birthday celebration for his friends and colleagues from around the country. Finally, at the age of 102, after the death of his second wife, he left Michigan to split time between his sons' homes in

Washington
.

William Dow died on October 17, 1999, aged 104, in Bellevue, Washington, while residing with his son Daniel, who himself had been Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle for a period of time starting in 1968.[10]

Commemoration

  • In 1980, the
    honorary Doctorate
    .
  • In 2001, the University of Michigan Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science established the William Gould Dow Distinguished Lectureship, the highest external honor the department bestows. It is awarded on the basis of "lifetime achievements, groundbreaking contributions to their fields, and sustained research excellence." In addition to presenting a lecture at the university, recipients receive a $5,000 honorarium.[11]

Books

  • Dow, William Gould (1937). Fundamentals of Engineering Electronics. Chapman & Hall.

Articles

  • Early, H. C.; Dow, W. (July 1950). "Supersonic Wind at Low Pressures Produced by Arc in Magnetic Field". Physical Review. 79 (1): 186.
    doi:10.1103/PhysRev.79.186
    .

Patents

References

  1. ^ Cook, Robert C. (1968). Leaders in American Science. Who's Who in American Education. p. 220. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  2. ^ "Carleton College - Northfield History Timeline". Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  3. ^ Cornish, Louis Henry (1902). National Register of the Society, Sons of the American Revolution. Press of A.H. Kellogg. pp. 603. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  4. ^ a b "Tribute to William Gould Dow". Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  5. ^ Wondero, Dawn (May–June 1995). "Nearly 100 and Still on the Go" (PDF). Michigan Professional Engineer. pp. 12–13.
  6. ^ "Guide to the Frederick Emmons Terman Papers". Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  7. ^ a b c "William Gould Dow and the Birth of the Space Physics Research Laboratory". Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  8. ^ "U-M Prof. William Dow died Oct. 17 at age 104" (Press release). The Regents of the University of Michigan. October 20, 1999. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  9. ^ Newell, Homer Edward (1980). Beyond the Atmosphere: Early Years of Space Science. The NASA history series, 4211. Washington, D.C.: Scientific and Technical Information Branch, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. p. 414. Archived from the original on 2010-03-11. Retrieved 2007-07-31.
  10. ^ Smith, George (August 1969). "Early History of the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Washington" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-07-24. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. ^ "William Gould Dow Distinguished Lectureship". Retrieved 2007-07-24.
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