William Alden Edson

William Alden Edson (October 30, 1912 - ) is a scientist and engineer specializing in vacuum tube oscillators, radar, antennas and microwave technologies. His work spans universities, research institutions and commercial ventures. He taught at Illinois Institute of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology and Stanford University. He was a researcher at Bell Laboratories and later at Stanford Research International (SRI). He also worked at General Electric and EMTECH, a company that he helped to found. His books, articles and patents have advanced technology in computers, radar detection and communications for both civilian and defense applications. His works have been widely cited in scientific literature.

Early Life

He was born in Burchard, Nebraska to an educated farming family. Most of his childhood was spent in Olathe, Kansas, where his father, William Henry Edson, owned a modest farm. His mother, Pearl (Montgomery) Edson was the librarian at the Carnegie library in Olathe. He had a brother, James Oliver and sister, Lois Anita.

He married Saralou Peterson and had three daughters, Judith, Margaret and Carolyn. He has three grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Education

Edson attended the University of Kansas, where his father had also studied. There he earned his B.S. and and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 1934 and 1935 respectively. He then entered Harvard University as a Gordon McKay scholar. The Gordon McKay endowment to Harvard was established upon the death of the entrepreneur in 1893 and was intended "to promote applied science..." by "aiding meritorious and needy students in pursuing those subjects..." Edson gained his D. Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Harvard University in 1937 at the age of 25.

Awards

Named in 1957 a Life Fellow by IEEE for "contributions in the fields of education and microwave electronics".

Awarded over 20 patents by the U.S Patent Office.

Research and Employment

After earning his doctorate, he joined Bell Laboratories in New York City as a member of the technical staff.

He resigned that position to become an assistant professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1941.

In [1942?] he returned to Bell Labs, recruited by Fred Terman, to become a staff member at its Radio Research Lab (RRL), a critical part of the U.S. government’s counter-intelligence effort during World War II.

From [date] to 1952, Dr. Edson was a professor of Electrical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. In July of 1952, he was named the Director of the school of Electrical Engineering.

He was recruited by Fred Terman once more to Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, the area now widely known as Silicon Valley. Dr. Edson joined the faculty as Acting Professor, Electrical Engineering and was on the staff of Stanford Electronics Research Laboratory.

In 1956, Dr. Edson was working for General Electric in Palo Alto, CA. Among other work, there he co-authored a proposal called ERMA (ELECTRONIC RECORDING MACHINE, ACCOUNTING), which proposed the commercialization of a research project, starting with installation for Bank of America, but intended to be sold to other banking entities.

In the early 1960's, he co-founded Electromagnetic Technologies Co. (EMTECH), which did much of its business with the U.S. Department of Defense. EMTECH was later acquired by American Electronic Laboratories (AEL), a Pennsylvania company. Dr. Edson, president of EMTECH at the time of the acquisition, left AEL to remain in the Silicon Valley area.

In 1964, he was invited to speak at the Goddard Electronics Colloquia Series in Greenbelt, Maryland. On November 25th his topic was "The Design of Oscillators and Concept of Frequency Stability.” The Colloquia series was designed for "keeping our electrical engineers abreast of the latest developments in their field by exposing them to recognized leaders in the electronics profession from throughout the country."

Dr. Edson joined the staff of Stanford Research International (SRI) in Menlo Park, in the mid-1970's. He worked there until his retirement in 1986.

Publications

"A theoretical and experimental investigation of (he frequency stability of vacuum tube oscillators." PhD dissertation. Cambridge, MA: Graduate School of Engineering, Harvard University, 1937.

Passive Space Communication Array, (FEB 1976)

High frequency crystal-controlled oscillator circuits ... [et al].

The keying properties of quartz crystal oscillators

Hyper and ultrahigh frequency engineering (1944), with Robert Irving Sarbacher, J. Wiley & sons, inc. : Chapman & Hall,, New York.

Vacuum-tube oscillators (1953) Wiley, New York.

Southwest PAVE PAWS Radar System. Environmental Assessment, (1983), with Sidney J. Everett; Louis N. Heynick; Steven R. Pierce; Richard A. Shepherd; (SRI INTERNATIONAL MENLO PARK CA)

Southeast PAVE PAWS Radar System. Environmental Assessment (1983), with Sidney J. Everett; Richard A. Shepherd; Louis N. Heynick; Tracy H. Walklet; (SRI INTERNATIONAL MENLO PARK CA)

Noise in Oscillators, (August 1960) General Electric Microwave Lab., Palo Alto, Calif.; Proceedings of the IRE Volume: 48, Issue: 8 On page(s): 1454-1466 ISSN: 0096-8390 Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/JRPROC.1960.287573 Current Version Published: 2007-01-22

Tapered Distributed RC Lines for Phase-Shift Oscillators,  Proceedings of the IRE,  Volume 49, Issue 6, June 1961 Page(s):1021 - 1024 

FREQUENCY CONVERTER UNITS FOR L-BAND, S-BAND, C-BAND, AND X-BAND. 15 DEC 1964 Authors: William A. Edson; Lyle C. Bacon; Peter Georgiev; ELECTROMAGNETIC TECHNOLOGY CORP PALO ALTO CALIF The L- and S-band double-balanced converters are being manufactured. The C-band double-balanced converter was improved regarding Ka-band signal leakage into the C-band port; more work is being done in this respect. Average conversion loss is about 12 db. The X-band double-balanced converter was improved regarding X-band matching which presently meets the VSWR specification in the frequency band from 7 to 10.1 Gc but does not meet specifications in the frequency ...

FREQUENCY CONVERTER UNITS FOR KU- TO KA-BAND OPERATION. 28 JUN 1966 Authors: William A. Edson; J. Wakobayashi; E. C. Welch; ELECTROMAGNETIC TECHNOLOGY CORP MOUNTAIN VIEW CA An unbalanced ridge waveguide converter was developed for the high Ku-band which satisfied the project requirements for conversion loss and VSWR when equipped with a single diode. In order to satisfy the project specifications for power level and spurious signals, a balanced converter using two diodes was fabricated and tested. The balanced converter should cancel the local oscillator and its harmonics, and the even harmonics of the input signal at ...

Patents

Dr. Edson authored or co-authored over 20 patents.

July 3 1945: 2,379,694, Stabilized Oscillator

December 10, 1946, With (brother) James O. Edson and John B. Maggio, #2,412,210, Cathode Ray Sweep Circuit

May 31, 1949, with Walter Kannenberg, #2,471,419, Tunable resonant cavity with adjustable walls (Canadian patent #482551)

Sept. 1972 #3693115, MECHANICAL TUNABLE BANDPASS FILTER

August, 1983 #4396893, Frequency selective limiter

July 1977 #4038609 - Replica bridge sensing circuit

#3798461, SHORT PULSE GENERATOR

ELECTRICAL TESTING SYSTEM US Pat. 2414456 - Filed Apr 19, 1945 - Bell Telephone Laboratories ... ELECTRICAL TESTING SYSTEM William A. Edson, New York, NY, assignor to Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated, New York, NY, a corporation of New York ...

MECHANICAL TUNABLE BANDPASS FILTER US Pat. 3693115 - Filed Dec 28, 1970 - American Electronic Laboratories ... [54] MECHANICAL TUNABLE BANDPASS FILTER [72] Inventor: William A. Edson, Los Altos Hills, Calif. [73] Assignee: American Electronic Laboratories, Inc., ...

Fluid motor-pumping apparatus and system US Pat. 4830583 - Filed Mar 2, 1988 - SRI International ... [54] FLUID MOTOR-PUMPING APPARATUS AND SYSTEM [] Inventor: William A. Edson, Los Altos Hills, Calif. [73] Assignee: SRI International, Menlo Park, ...

WAVEGUIDE WINDOW US Pat. 3100881 - Filed Oct 19, 1960 - General Electric Company WAVEGUIDE SYSTEM HAVING" MODE CONVERT-/ ER FOR CHANGING RECTANGULAR TE10 MODE INTO CIRCULAR TE01 AT LOCUS OF WAVEGUIDE WINDOW : William A. Edson, L'os Altos ...

TUNABLE RESONANT CAVITY WITH US Pat. 2471419 - Filed Jul 7, 1944 Patented May 31, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE TUNABLE RESONANT CAVITY WITH ADJUSTABLE WALLS William A. Edson, New York, NY, and Walter F. Kannenberg, ...

SYSTEM FOR RECIRCULATING MEMORY US Pat. 3185978 - Filed Feb 24, 1961 - General Electric Company A memory suitable for use at microwave frequencies is described by William A. Edson in application Serial Number 82036 filed January 11, 1961, and assigned ...

ORIFICE COUPLING TO RESONANT CAVITIES US Pat. 2720629 - Filed Sep 9, 1947 with Russell W. Lange

Frequency selective limiter US Pat. 4396893 -

INFORMATION STORAGE SYSTEM FOR MICROWAVE COMPUTER US Pat. 3187308 - Filed Jul 3, 1961

EDSON US Pat. 2993139 - Filed Oct 1, 1957 - General Electric Company ... 1961 20 25 2 993 139 MICROWAVE MODULATOR DEVICE William A. Edson, Los Altos Hills, Calif., assignor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New ... POSITIVE GRID OSCILLATOR US Pat. 2459283 - Filed Apr 13, 1944 - Westinghouse Electric Corporation ... a simple treatise on "Positive Grid or Retarding Field Oscillators" by Robert I. Sarbacher and William A. Edson in "Electronics" for August, 1943, vol. ...

Passive, frequency-steerable, microwave repeater system US Pat. 4677440 - Filed Mar 17, 1983 - SRI International 30, [54] PASSIVE, FREQUENCY-STEERABLE, MICROWAVE REPEATER SYSTEM [75] Inventors: William A. Edson, Los Altos Hills; Raymond A. Nelson, Palo Alto; ...

CONSTANT Q KESONATOR US Pat. 2688122 - Filed Aug 28, 1947 - Bell Tele ... William A. Edson, Atlanta, Ga., and Ira G. Wilson, New York, NY, assignors to Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated, New York, NY, a corporation of ...

CATHODE-RAY SWEEP CIRCUIT US Pat. 2412210 - Filed Mar 21, 1942 - Bell Telephone Labora ... said third voltage by phase inversion into equal and oppositely phased voltages of saw-tooth form. WILLIAM A. EDSON. JAMES O. EDSON. JOHN B. MAGGIO.

MICROWAVE ELECTRICAL TESTING US Pat. 2498073 - Filed May 11, 1946 - Bell Telephone Laboratories WILLIAM A. EDSON. 35 IRA G.WILSON. REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent: 40 UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name ...

Dec 10, 1968 #3416145, READ-OUT SYSTEM FOR RECIRCULATING MEMORY

Feb 2, 1971 #3560853, SIGNAL GENERATORS HAVING EXTENDED DISPLAY ABLE SIGNAL FREQUENCY RANGES

Mar 29, 1949 #2465639, CAVITY RESONATOR

Oct 4, 1966 #3277450, HIGH SPEED INFORMATION STORAGE SYSTEM

March 7, 1944 #2343539 STABILIZED OSCILLATOR

Affiliations

In addition to his decades-long participation in IEEE, Dr. Edson was a longtime member of the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) and an active participant in the Western Electronics Show and Convention (WESCON), American Physical Society, American Association for Advancement of Science, American Society for Engineering Education, and the National Society for Professional Engineers.