MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science EECS Great Educators

Professor Harold Eugene Edgerton, known to his students, colleagues and friends as Doc Edgerton or simply as "Doc," was one of the all-time greats of the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

An inventor, entrepreneur, and inveterate experimentalist, he turned a high-intensity, variable-speed, flashing-light device that he developed for his Master's thesis, the strobotac, into a technology that let the world see things it had never seen before. As someone put it, this invention "made time stand still." From this device there emerged a never-ending series of products and applications.

The strobotac, flash photography and underwater-camera technology are just a few of the instruments and systems that Doc developed and refined. For his creativity he received 47 patents and was honored with many awards, prizes, medals, certificates of appreciation, and honorary degrees. To promote and manufacture the strobotac, he founded, with his colleagues Kenneth Germeshausen and Herbert Grier, EG&G, Inc., which grew into a Fortune-500 company with 30,000 employees. He was the author or co-author of three books and more than 100 journal articles about his work.

Professor Edgerton was born in 1903 in Fremont, Nebraska. His father was a small-town lawyer and newspaperman. He received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering at the University of Nebraska and his S.M. and Sc.D. degrees at MIT. During his graduate-student years he was a research assistant and instructor in our department. Appointed to the faculty in 1931, he was honored in 1966 with the rank of Institute Professor, a prestigious title held by only about one percent of the MIT faculty. He died in 1990, at age 87.

Although the world was Doc's laboratory -- he explored ocean floors for artifacts, ancient treasures and long-lost sunken vessels -- it was from his Strobe Laboratory on the fourth floor of Building 4 that many of his ideas emerged and where he inspired so many students, particularly undergraduates, to become interested in the experimental method of engineering. During the peak years of his career, the Strobe Project Laboratory regularly attracted twenty or so students per semester, and each year a half-dozen or so undergraduates would do their theses under his supervision. In these endeavors he was a tireless worker. When a student, new to his lab, inquired about lab working hours, Doc replied, "In this lab we work 'till we're tired. Then we go home to rest. When we're rested, we come back and start working again." The doors were always open.

Doc's dedication to his students was not confined to his laboratory. He and his wife, Esther, regularly entertained students in their home, and legend has it that occasionally their guests were invited to inscribe their names on the underside of their dining room table. He was also a focal point at the department's annual Steak Fry. With his guitar he would lead the couple hundred or so attendees in singing. His songs were always the same: "You are My Sunshine," "Clementine," and "Red River Valley." If he thought there was not enough enthusiasm, he would insist on a repeat performance. Those who were there will recall his exhortation: "Come on, now. This time everybody sing -- LOUD!" Soon the sound was deafening.

Just to know Professor Edgerton was an honor. The impact he had on people is easily exemplified by a newly arrived freshman who sat in rapture at Doc's lecture on the occasion of the dedication of Building 34, the Edgerton, Germeshausen and Grier building. When he was asked if he were enjoying the lecture, the student replied: "Enjoying it? I can't believe it! All through high school I read everything about him and his work that I could get my hands on. Now, here I am in the same room with him, listening to him speak. I can't believe it!!" Over the years, many others have felt exactly the same way.

Doc's love of students and his devotion to experimentation continues at MIT. The Edgerton Center, opened in 1992, is the successor to his Strobe Laboratory. Its mission is to provide undergraduates, particularly freshmen, with hands-on experiences in a wide range of modern technologies, following Doc's unique style.