Name Marcel E. | Role Mathematician | |
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Died April 27, 1989, Lausanne, Switzerland Education University of Chicago, ETH Zurich | ||
Marcel Jules Edouard Golay ([gɔlɛ]; May 3, 1902 – April 27, 1989) was a Swiss-born mathematician, physicist, and information theorist, who applied mathematics to real-world military and industrial problems. He was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
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Career
Golay studied electrical engineering at the Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschule (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Zürich. He joined Bell laboratories in New York City in 1924, spending four years there. He received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago in 1931.
Golay then joined the US Army Signal Corps, eventually rising to the post of Chief Scientist. He was based mostly in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. He developed radar systems and invented the Golay Detector which identified the infrared emissions of aircraft.
Between 1955 and 1963, Golay was a consultant for Philco Corporation of Philadelphia, PA, and the Perkin-Elmer Corporation of Norwalk, Connecticut. In 1963, Golay joined the Perkin-Elmer company full-time as Senior Research Scientist. Golay worked on many problems, including gas chromatography and optical spectroscopy. He remained with Perkin-Elmer for the rest of his life.