Albert G. Hill

Albert G. Hill
Born	January 11, 1910 St. Louis, Missouri
Died	October 21, 1996 Needham, MA
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Washington University in St. Louis University of Rochester
Known for	physics defense
Spouses	Ethel Simpson Ruth Parker Hill
Scientific career
Institutions	MIT Bell Labs Lincoln Lab Weapons Systems Evaluation Group
Doctoral advisor	Lee DuBridge

Albert Gordon Hill(1910-1996) was a physicist. He was a key leader in the development of radar in World War II, director of the MITLincoln Laboratorydevelopment of the electronic Distant Early Warning and SAGE continental air defense systems, and first chairman of TheCharles Stark Draper Laboratory.He died in 1996.

Biography

Hill was born in St. Louis on Jan. 11, 1910. In 1930 he received the BS in mechanical engineering fromWashington University in St. Louisand, after serving two years with Bell Telephone Laboratories, an MS in physics there (1934). He received the PhD in physics from theUniversity of Rochesterin 1937 under the guidance ofLee DuBridge.

He was an instructor in physics atMITfrom 1937 to 1941, when he became a staff member of theRadiation Laboratoryat MIT, which was developingradarfor use inWorld War II.Hill headed the Radio Frequency Group in the Transmitter Components division and by the end of the war was chief of the 800-person division. After the war he became associate director of the newly formed Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT, and was promoted in 1949 to its director.

Lincoln Labwas formed in 1951 at the request of the government, and Dr. Hill became its second director, leading the development of the computerized SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) air defense system and the DEW line of radar sets stretching from northern Alaska to Greenland. He helped establish in 1955 the SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers Europe) Technical Center in The Hague and the NATO Communications Line, extending from northern Norway to eastern Turkey.

In 1956, Hill went to Washington to serve as director for theWeapons Systems Evaluation Groupand vice president and director of research for the Institute for Defense Analyses. He returned to MIT in 1959 and resumed teaching physics. In 1965, he also became a lecturer in the department of political science.

In 1970, he was appointed to the new position of vice president for research, supervising research administration on campus and the special laboratories (Lincoln Lab and the Instrumentation Lab). In May 1970, MIT formally divested itself of the Instrumentation Lab, which under the direction ofCharles Stark Draperhad developed the gyroscope and the inertial guidance system and had guided Apollo XI to the moon in July 1969. Dr. Hill, still vice president of research, became the chairman of the independent board of directors of the laboratory, renamed theCharles Stark Draper Laboratoryin honor of its founder. Draper Lab remained a division of MIT for three years and became independent in 1973.

In 1984, the Draper Laboratory dedicated the Albert G. Hill Building at One Hampshire Street in Cambridge.

Advocacy

Hill was an important advocate for equal opportunity and affirmative action at MIT, and he personally recruited African-American graduate students and faculty to theMIT Department of Physics.He chaired the committee which began MIT's Office of Minority Education. MIT named the Albert G. Hill Prize for undergraduates in his honor.

Positions

• Professor of Physics, MIT
• Staff,MIT Radiation Laboratory
• Director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics, MIT
• Director,Lincoln Lab
• Chairman, Charles Stark Draper Laboratory

Honors

• Fellow of theAmerican Physical Society,1941
• Presidential Certificate of Merit,1948
• Air Force Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, 1955
• Washington University Distinguished Alumni Citation, 1955
• Secretary of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, 1959
• Washington University School of Engineering Alumni Achievement Award, 1991

See also

• Radiation Laboratory
• Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT
• Photographs of Albert G. Hill
• Albert Gordon Hill papers,MC-0365. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Distinctive Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts.