Background
Alcorn was born on March 22, 1940 to George and Arletta Dixon Alcorn.
Alcorn was born on March 22, 1940 to George and Arletta Dixon Alcorn.
Alcorn received a four-year academic scholarship to Occidental College in Los Angeles, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics. He received his degree with honors while earning eight letters in basketball and football. Alcorn earned a Master of Science in Nuclear Physics in 1963 from, after nine months of study.
During the summers of 1962 and 1963, he worked as a research engineer for the Space Division of North American Rockwell.
He was involved with the computer analysis of launch trajectories and orbital mechanics for Rockwell missiles, including the Titan I and II, Saturn IV, and the Nova (rocket)|Nova.
Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2015. #4,172,004, 10/23/1979, Method for forming dense dry etched multi-level metallurgy with non-overlapped vias #4,201,800, 5/6/1980, Hardened photoresist master image mask process #4,289,834, 9/15/1981, Dense dry etched multi-level metallurgy with non-overlapped vias #4,472,728, 9/18/1984, Imaging X-ray spectrometer #4,543,442, 9/24/1985, Gallium Arsenide Schottky barrier photo-responsive device and method of fabrication #4,618,380, 10/21/1986, Method of fabricating an imaging X-ray spectrometer #4,062,720, 12/13/1977, Process for forming ledge-free aluminum copper silicon conductor structure #3,986,912, 10/19/1976, Process for controlling the wall inclination of a plasma etched via hole.