Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
SECOND HOLDER H.W. Kendall Is Named Stratton Professor Henry W. Kendall, who shared the 1991 Nobel Prize in physics, has been named to the Julius A. Stratton Professorship in Electrical Engineering and Physics. Professor Kendall, internationally known for his research involving the internal structures of elementary particles and for his work with the Union of Concerned Scientists, is the second holder of the chair established in 1979 by William R. Hewlett, a founder of Hewlett-Packard, who received the SM in electrical engineering from MIT in 1936. The chair, which honors MIT's 11th president, is held alternately by faculty from the Department of Physics and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, reflecting Dr. Stratton's continuing interest in those disciplines. The first holder of the chair was the late James R. Melcher, who died last January. The appointment, announced by Provost Mark S. Wrighton, reflects Professor Kendall's "distinguished leadership in research" and his "dedicated service to the community." Professor Kendall and Institute Professor Jerome I. Friedman shared the 1990 Nobel Prize with Stanford's Richard E. Taylor. The award cited research they did from 1967 to 1973 at the Stanford Linear Accelerator which revolutionized particle physics by providing the first experimental evidence for subnuclear particles called quarks. Professor Kendall, a member of the faculty since 1961, received the BA degree in mathematics from Amherst College (1950) and the PhD in nuclear and atomic physics from MIT (1954). Before joining the MIT faculty, he taught at Stanford's Department of Physics for five years. He is a founding member of the Union for Concerned Scientists, formed in 1969, and has been its chairman since 1973, leading the organization's efforts in assessing and developing means to control the adverse effects of advanced technologies.