Guyford Stever
Guyford Stever | |
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1st Director of theOffice of Science and Technology Policy | |
In office August 9, 1976 – January 20, 1977 | |
President | Gerald Ford |
Preceded by | Ed David(Science and Technology, 1973) |
Succeeded by | Frank Press |
4th Director of theNational Science Foundation | |
In office 1972–1976 | |
President | Richard Nixon Gerald Ford |
Preceded by | William D. McElroy |
Succeeded by | Richard C. Atkinson |
5th President ofCarnegie Mellon University | |
In office 1965–1972 | |
Preceded by | John Warner |
Succeeded by | Richard Cyert |
Personal details | |
Born | Horton Guyford Stever October 24, 1916 Corning, New York,U.S. |
Died | April 9, 2010 Gaithersburg, Maryland,U.S. | (aged 93)
Education | Colgate University(BS) California Institute of Technology(MS,PhD) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physics |
Institutions | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Thesis | 1. The discharge mechanism of Geiger counters. 2. The mean lifetime of the mesotron from electroscope data(1941) |
Doctoral advisor | Victor Neher |
Horton Guyford Stever(October 24, 1916 – April 9, 2010) was anAmericanadministrator,physicist, educator, and engineer. He was a director of theNational Science Foundation(from February 1972 to August 1976).[1]
Biography
[edit]Stever was raised inCorning, New York,principally by his maternal grandmother. He played football in high school. He graduated fromColgate Universitywith an undergraduate degree inphysicsand then fromCalifornia Institute of Technologyin 1941 with aPhDin physics.[2]He joined the staff of the radiation lab atMIT.In 1942 he began serving the military as a civilian scientific liaison officer based inLondon, Englanduntil the end ofWorld War II.AfterD-Dayhe was sent toFranceseveral times to studyGermantechnology.
He returned to MIT after the war, serving asassociate deanof engineering there from 1956 to 1959 and then as a department head. In 1965 he became the fifthPresidentofCarnegie Mellon University(and the first under that name, in 1967), a position he held until 1972. Stever House, a dorm on Carnegie Mellon's campus is named for him. During this period, he was also chairman of the aeronautics and space engineering board for theNational Academy of Engineeringadvising NASA and other Federal agencies.[3]
He also served as the director of the National Science Foundation from 1972 until 1976. Between 1976 and 1977 he was PresidentGerald Ford'sScience Advisor.
He also served on the board of trustees of Science Service, now known asSociety for Science & the Public,from 1982 to 2006.
Stever received an LL.D. fromBates Collegein 1977. In 1997, he received theVannevar Bush Awardfrom the National Science Board.
Stever died at his home inGaithersburg, Marylandon April 9, 2010.[4]
NACA Special Committee on Space Technology
[edit]Guyford Stever was chairman or member of numerousadvisory committeesto the U.S. government. TheNACA'sSpecial Committee on Space Technology,also called the "Stever Committee," was among the better-known of these. It was a specialsteering committeethat was formed with the mandate to coordinate various branches of the Federal government, private companies as well as universities within the United States with NACA's objectives and also harness their expertise in order to develop aspace program.[5]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/NACA%27s_Special_Committee_on_Space_Technology.jpg/220px-NACA%27s_Special_Committee_on_Space_Technology.jpg)
Remarkably,Hendrik Wade Bode,the man who helped develop the robot weapons that brought down theNaziV-1 flying bombsoverLondonduringWWII,was actually serving on the same committee and sitting at the same table as the chief engineer of theV-2,the other weapon that terrorised London:Wernher von Braun.[6][7]
As of their meeting on May 26, 1958, committee members, starting clockwise from the left of the adjacent picture, included:[5]
Committee member | Title |
---|---|
Edward R. Sharp | Director of theLewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory |
Colonel Norman C Appold | Assistant to the Deputy Commander for Weapons Systems,Air Research and Development Command:US Air Force |
Abraham Hyatt | Research and Analysis Officer Bureau of Aeronautics,Department of the Navy |
Hendrik Wade Bode | Director of Research Physical Sciences,Bell Telephone Laboratories |
William Randolph Lovelace II | Lovelace Foundation for Medication Education and Research |
S. K Hoffman | General Manager, Rocketdyne Division,North American Aviation |
Milton U Clauser | Director, Aeronautical Research Laboratory, TheRamo-Wooldridge Corporation |
H. Julian Allen | Chief, High Speed Flight Research,NACA Ames |
Robert R. Gilruth | Assistant Director,NACA Langley |
J. R. Dempsey | Manager.Convair-Astronautics(Division ofGeneral Dynamics) |
Carl B. Palmer | Secretary to Committee,NACA Headquarters |
H. Guyford Stever | Chairman, Associate Dean of Engineering,Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Hugh L. Dryden | (ex officio), Director, NACA |
Dale R. Corson | Department of Physics,Cornell University |
Abe Silverstein | Associate Director,NACA Lewis |
Wernher von Braun | Director, Development Operations Division,Army Ballistic Missile Agency |
NRC Committee on Human Exploration of Space
[edit]In 1990 Stever chaired aCommittee on Human Exploration of Spacefor theNational Research Council.The committee released a report titled,Human Exploration of Space: A Review of NASA's 90-Day Study and Alternatives.[8]
Honors
[edit]- Elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences,1953.[9]
- Elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society,2001.[10]
References
[edit]- Fenton, Edwin (2000).Carnegie Mellon 1900-2000: A Centennial History.Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press.ISBN0-88748-323-2.
- Stever, H. Guyford (2002).In War and Peace: My Life in Science and Technology.Joseph Henry Press.ISBN0-309-08411-3.
- H. Guyford Stever Oral Historyfrom IEEE via the Engineering and Technology History Wiki
- Announcement of his death
Footnotes
[edit]- ^National Science Foundation
- ^Stever, Horton Guyford (1941).1. The discharge mechanism of Geiger counters. 2. The mean lifetime of the mesotron from electroscope data(PhD).California Institute of Technology.OCLC437069509– viaProQuest.
- ^"Unit Formed to Aid NASA".New York Times.1967.Retrieved2017-11-02.
- ^Hevesi, Dennis (April 14, 2010)."H. G. Stever, Who Advised Leaders on Science, Dies at 93".New York Times.
- ^abNASA Historical Website
- ^...missile research centre run by Wernher von Braun, who later worked on the American space programme(10 June 2001 Germans at last learn truth about von Braun's 'space research' base. By Tony Paterson in Peenemunde, The Telegraph. Retrieved 9-3-07)
- ^...Von Braun soon went to work at a secret laboratory called Peenemünde near the Baltic Sea... heading up the team that developed the V2 missile(IEEE Global History Network Retrieved 1-4-09)
- ^*Human Exploration of Space: A Review of NASA's 90-Day Study and Alternatives.
- ^"Horton Guyford Stever".American Academy of Arts & Sciences.Retrieved2021-10-11.
- ^"APS Member History".search.amphilsoc.org.Retrieved2021-10-11.
- 1916 births
- 2010 deaths
- American physicists
- California Institute of Technology alumni
- Colgate University alumni
- Chief Scientists of the United States Air Force
- Engineers from New York (state)
- Ford administration personnel
- Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- NASA people
- National Medal of Science laureates
- National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
- Nixon administration personnel
- People from Corning, New York
- Presidents of Carnegie Mellon University
- Scientists from New York (state)
- Vannevar Bush Award recipients
- Members of the American Philosophical Society
- Directors of the Office of Science and Technology Policy