James Edward Maceo West
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| James E. West | |
|---|---|
 James West.
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| Born | 10 February 1931 Prince Edward County, Virginia |
| Residence | USA |
| Citizenship | American |
| Ethnicity | African-American |
| Fields | physics |
| Institutions | Bell Labs Johns Hopkins University |
James Edward Maceo West (February 10, 1931 –) is an American inventor and acoustician. With Gerhard Sessler, West developed the foil electret microphone in 1962. Born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, he received his BS in Physics from Temple University in 1957. West went on to receive 250 US and foreign patents on microphones and techniques for making polymer foil electrets.
After a 40-year career, culminating as a Bell Laboratories Fellow, and retiring from Lucent Technologies in 2001, West joined the Whiting School at Johns Hopkins University where he is a research professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. West also founded the Association of Black Laboratory Employees (ABLE), which in turn led to the establishment of the Cooperative Research Fellowship Program and the Summer Research Program for college students. [1]
In 2006, West was awarded the prestigious U.S. National Medals of Technology.[2] He is also a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
In order to address the paucity of people of color in technical careers in the U.S. in the 1950s and '60s, he co-founded ABLE, the Association of Black Labs Employees, out of which grew the highly successful Cooperative Research Fellowship Program and the Summer Research Program for college students.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ "Microphone inventor West discusses black, Hispanic heritage in Technology", Princeton Weekly Bulletin, Feb.4, 2008
- ^ Secretary Gutierrez Congratulates 2006 National Medal of Technology Laureates
- ^ http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/west_jamese.html
[edit] External links
- "The Electret Turns 40", Lucent Technologies article
- Biography of West from IEEE
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