Ivan Getting biography
Date of birth : 1912-01-18
Date of death : 2003-11-11
Birthplace : New York City,U.S.
Nationality : American
Category : Science and Technology
Last modified : 2011-10-03
Credited as : Inventor, Physicist,
30 votes so far
As president of Aerospace Corp., founded by the US Air Force, physicist Ivan Getting helped develop what became the Global Positioning System (GPS), a multi-satellite military targeting program which has been adapted to certain civilian applications. He studied under Karl T. Compton and E. Arthur Milne, and was involved in early development of anti-aircraft radar, high-powered chemical lasers, microwave tracking fire control radar, nuclear instrumentation, and the Hawk, Polaris, and Sparrow III missile systems.
Ivan A. Getting was born on 18 January, 1912 in New York City to family of Slovak immigrants from Bytca, Slovakia and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as an Edison Scholar (S.B. Physics, 1933); and Oxford University as a Graduate Rhodes Scholar (D.Phil., 1935). He then worked at Harvard University on nuclear instrumentation and cosmic rays (Junior Fellow, 1935-1940) and the MIT Radiation Laboratory (1940-1950; Director of the Division on Fire Control and Army Radar, Associate Professor 1945; Professor 1946). During the Second World War he was a special consultant to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson on the Army's use of radar. He also served as head of the Naval Fire Control Section of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, member of the Combined Chiefs of Staff Committee on Searchlight and Fire Control, and head of the Radar Panel of the Research and Development Board of the Department of Defense.he was getting involed in world War 2.
In 1950, during the Korean War, Getting became Assistant for Development Planning, Deputy Chief of Staff, United States Air Force; and in 1951, Vice President for Engineering and Research at the Raytheon Corporation (1951-1960). While at Raytheon, Getting also served on the Undersea Warfare Committee of the National Research Council.
In 1960 Getting became founding President of The Aerospace Corporation (1960-1977). The Corporation was established at the request of the Secretary of the Air Force as a non-profit organization to apply "the full resources of modern science and technology to the problem of achieving those continued advances in ballistic missiles and space systems, which are basic to national security." Getting was also a founding member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Group (later renamed the Scientific Advisory Board) and chair of its Electronics Panel. In 1978 he served as President of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He served on the Board of Directors of the Northrop Corporation and the Board of Trustees of the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan.
Getting retired from The Aerospace Corporation in 1977, and died on October 11, 2003, in Coronado, California.
Major awards and recognitions:
Presidential Medal for Merit (1948)
The Naval Ordnance Development Award
The Air Force Exceptional Service Award (1960)
IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Pioneer Award (1975)
The Kitty Hawk Award (1975)
The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineer's Pioneer Award and Founders Medal (1989)
The Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service (1997)
The John Fritz Medal (1998)
Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs
San Diego Aerospace Museum's International Aerospace Hall of Fame (2002)
Navy Superior Public Service Award (1999)
The National Academy of Engineering Charles Stark Draper Prize (with Bradford Parkinson, 2003)
National Inventors Hall of Fame (posthumously, 2004)
