Marcel J. E. Golay collection

Marcel Jules Edouard Golay was born on May 3, 1902 in Neuchatel Switzerland. He received his degree as an electrical engineer from Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschule (E.T.H.) in Zurich. Upon graduation he was hired by Bell Telephone Laboratories but after four years left to pursue graduate studies at the University of Chicago and in 1931 was awarded his Ph.D. Since his thesis dealt with atomic physics, he decided to accept an offer from the U.S. Signal Corps Engineering Laboratory at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. He remained there for the next twenty-five years and was involved in radar systems development. He also invented the Golay Detector which detected aircraft by their emitted infrared radiation. When Golay retired from the Signal Corps in 1955 he became a consultant to two different corporations the Philco Corporation of Philadelphia, PA, whom he advised on matters concerning information theory, and the Perkin-Elmer Corporation of Norwalk Connecticut, whom he advised on matters concerning scientific instrumentation. Eventually he gravitated to full-time work with Perkin-Elmer where he became a senior research scientist with special interest in the emerging field of gas chromatography. At Perkin-Elmer he also worked on NMR coils, binary and ternary codes, data extraction, pattern recognition and created the Golay Logic Processor and the open-tubular column for use in gas chromatography. Still active, Golay died at his home in La Conversion, Switzerland on April 27, 1989.

For a more detailed inventory, please view this record in our library catalog: https://othmerlib.sciencehistory.org/record=b1071980~S6

This is a comprehensive collection of Marcel J.E. Golay's published scientific papers. It does not include correspondence, personal papers photographs, mementos or book length publications.

Source of acquisition--Nona Golay Bloomer. Method of acquisition--Gift;; Date of acquisition--2011..

Preferred Citation

Marcel J. E. Golay Collection, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania..

Publisher

Science History Institute Archives

Creator

Ettre, Leslie S.

Subject

Gas chromatography

Optics

Information theory

Forms, Binary

Spectrum analysis

People

Golay, Marcel Jules Edouard, 1902-1989

Language Note

Text in English and French.

Form

Archival materials