MIT Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

MIT's Building 20: The Magical Incubator Story, Anecdote, or Reminiscence

My Career Began in 20B229

George Pieper
GFPieper@aol.com

My career began when I reported to room 20B229 on July 5, 1944 for my first real, paying job as a physicist. I was 18 years old, had completed three years of undergraduate college at Williams, majoring in physics, and had been offered a job as a staff member (!) at the MIT Radiation Laboratory at the magnificent salary of $200 per month. With RADLAB badge number 1281, I was in heaven. For the next 16 months I designed vacuum tube circuits, did life tests on systems and components, and flew test runs on S-band beacons as a member of group 71.1.

I went back to Williams to finish after the war was over, got advanced degrees at Cornell and Yale, and spent the major part of my career as Director of Space and Earth Sciences at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from 1965 to 1983. I retired as Naval Space Command Professor of Aerospace Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1991.

I remember very fondly how it all began in 20B229.