engineering

George H. Heilmeier

George H. Heilmeier is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand George H. Heilmeier rather than just read about it. In short: George Harry Heilmeier (May 22, 1936 – April 21, 2014) was an American engineer, manager, and a pioneering contributor to liquid crystal displays (LCDs), for which he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Heilmeier's work is an IEEE Milestone.

Key takeaways

George H. Heilmeier belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect George H. Heilmeier to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of George H. Heilmeier from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

George Harry Heilmeier (May 22, 1936 – April 21, 2014) was an American engineer, manager, and a pioneering contributor to liquid crystal displays (LCDs), for which he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Heilmeier's work is an IEEE Milestone.

Biography Heilmeier was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School there, received his BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and his M.S.E., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in solid state materials and electronics from Princeton University. Dr. Heilmeier, the son of a janitor, was the first member of his family to finish high school. His daughter, Beth Jarvie, said “it was the Christian character of my dad” as well as his ability to put his head down and push forward with the work at hand that played major roles in his contributions. In 1958 Heilmeier joined RCA Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey, where he worked on parametric amplification, tunnel diode down-converters, millimeter wave generation, ferroelectric thin film devices, organic semiconductors and electro-optic effects in molecular and liquid crystals. In 1964 he discovered several new electro-optic effects in liquid crystals, which led to the first working liquid crystal displays based on what he called the dynamic scattering mode (DSM). Heilmeier spent much of the 1970s in the United States Department of Defense. In 1970–71, he served as a White House Fellow and special assistant to the Secretary of Defense, performing long-range research and development planning. In 1971 he was appointed Assistant Director for Defense Research and Engineering, Electronic and Physical Sciences, overseeing all research and exploratory development in electronics and the physical sciences. In 1975 he was named Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and initiated major efforts in stealth aircraft, space-based lasers, space-based infrared technology, and artificial intelligence. In December 1977 Heilmeier left government to become vice president at Texas Instruments; in 1983 he was promoted to Chief Technical Officer. From 1991 to 1996, he was president and CEO of Bellcore (now Telcordia), ultimately overseeing its sale to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). He served as the company's chairman and CEO from 1996 to 1997, and afterwards as its chairman emeritus. Heilmeier had received numerous awards, held 15 patents, and was a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Defense Science Board, and the National Security Agency Advisory Board. He served on the board of trustees of Fidelity Investments and of Teletech Holdings, and the Board of Overseers of the School of Engineering and Applied Science of the University of Pennsylvania. He died of a stroke in 2014 at the age of 77.

Heilmeier's Catechism A set of questions credited to Heilmeier that anyone proposing a research project or product development effort should be able to answer.

What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon. How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice? What's new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful? Who cares? If you're successful, what difference will it make? What are the risks and the payoffs? How much will it cost? How long will it take? What are the midterm and final "exams" to check for success?

Selected awards 1976 IEEE David Sarnoff Award, IEEE 1990 C&C Prize 1991 National Medal of Science, US 1992 National Academy of Engineering Founders Award, US 1993 IRI Medal from the Industrial Research Institute, US 1993 Vladimir Karapetoff Eminent Members' Award, Eta Kappa Nu 1996 John Scott Award, City of Philadelphia 1997 IEEE Medal of Honor, IEEE 1999 John Fritz Medal, American Association of Engineering Societies 2005 Kyoto Prize in advanced technology, Inamori Foundation 2006 Edwin H. Land Medal 2012 Charles Stark Draper Prize, National Academy of Engineering

Selected publications 1966 "Possible Ferroelectric Effects in Liquid Crystals and Related Liquids" (Williams, R. and Heilmeier, G. H.), Journal of Chemical Physics, 44: 638. 1968 "Dynamic Scattering: A New Electrooptic Effect in Certain Classes of Nematic Liquid Crystals" (with Zanoni, L. A. and Barton, L. A.), Proceedings of the IEEE, 56: 1162. 1970 "Liquid Crystal Display Devices", Scientific American, 222: 100. 1976 "Liquid Crystal Displays: An Experiment in Interdisciplinary Research that Worked", IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, ED-23: 780.

References

Further reading Oral history interview with George H. Heilmeier, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Heilmeier describes his introduction to the Department of Defense as a White House Fellow assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense working in the Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering. Most of the interview is devoted to his years as Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (1975–1977). IEEE biography Inamori Foundation biography

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with George H. Heilmeier

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what George H. Heilmeier claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to George H. Heilmeier before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about George H. Heilmeier ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of George H. Heilmeier

In research: George H. Heilmeier appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses George H. Heilmeier in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: George H. Heilmeier is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1936 births, 2014 deaths, Abraham Lincoln High School (Philadelphia) alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for George H. Heilmeier outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study George H. Heilmeier in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what George H. Heilmeier means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain George H. Heilmeier out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is George H. Heilmeier in simple terms?

Why does George H. Heilmeier matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study George H. Heilmeier?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on George H. Heilmeier.