Background
Harold Eugene Edgerton was born in 1903 in Fremont, Nebraska, United States.
inventor Photographer scientist teacher
Harold Eugene Edgerton was born in 1903 in Fremont, Nebraska, United States.
Edgerton received his BS from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, in 1925. From the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, he earned both his MS (1927) and his DSc (1931).
He worked for General Electric in 1925-26, but since 1927 he has been teaching at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A professor of electrical engineering for many years, he is institute professor, emeritus.
The scientist has received numerous awards and honors during his long career, among them four honorary degrees (two LLD degrees, one DSc, and one DEng) from four different universities. A selection of his other awards are: Albert A. Michelson Medal, 1969, and Potts Medal, 1941, Franklin Institute; Alan Gordon Memorial Award, SPIE, 1969; John Oliver La- Gorce Gold Medal, 1968, and Franklin L. Burr Prize, 1953, National Geographic Society; Richardson Medal, Optical Society of America, 1968; Technical Achievement Award, ASMP, 1965; Silver Progress Medal, 1964, and Medal, 1936, Royal Photographic Society of London; Industrial Photographers Association, National Award, 1963; E. I. duPont Gold Medal Award, 1962, and Progress Award, 1959, SMPTE; Gordon Y. Billard Award, MIT, 1962; Boston Sea Rovers Award, I960; New England Engineer of the Year Award, Eng. Societies of New England, 1959; 75th Anniversary Citation, 1955, and Master of Photography, 1949, Photographers Association of America; Photography Magazine Award, 1952; U.S. Camera Achievement Gold Medal Award, 1951; Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award, National Press Photographic Association, 1949; Medal of Freedom, 1946; Modem Pioneers Award, National Association of Manufacturers, 1940; Citation for Operation Sandstone, University of California, Los Alamos Scientific Lab, (n.d.); Certificate of Appreciation from the War Department, 1946.
Dr. Edgerton's pioneering research in stroboscopic photography laid the foundation for the development of modern electronic speed flash. In 1931 at MIT he developed a lamp that produced a brilliant light with a duration of less than one- millionth of a second. He perfected the use of stroboscopic lights in both ultra-high speed motion and still photography, thus enabling photographers to capture activities beyond the perceptive capacity of the human eye - bullets in flight, light bulbs shattering, etc.
During World War II, Edgerton photographed nuclear test explosions. Dr. Edgerton was a founding partner of EG&G, Inc., in Wellesley, Massachusetts, a company specializing in electronic technology.
PUBLICATIONS Books: Moments of Vision, w/ J. R. Killian, 1979; Electronic Flash, Strobe, 1979; The Encyclopedia of Photography, 1963; Flash, Seeing the Unseen, w/J. R. Killian, 1939, repr. 1954. Anthologies: The Photograph Collector’s Guide, Lee D. Witkin & Barbara London, 1979; The Magic Image, Cecil Beaton & Gail Buckland, 1975; Photography's Great Inventors, Louis W. Sipley, 1965. Periodicals: Industrial Photography, Nov 1961; Photographic Science &) Engineering, 1959; Research Film, 1958; Progress in Photography, 1940-1950; Photo Technique, Oct 1940, Oct, Aug 1939.
Dr. Edgerton is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Photographic Society of America, RPS and Society of Motion Picture & TV Engineers. He is also a member of the Academy of Applied Science, Academy of Underwater Arts & Sciences, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, American Philosophical Society, Boston Camera Club (Hon.), Marine Technology Society, Boston Museum of Science, National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, Photographers Association of New England, Society of Photographic Engineers and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
