Dennis Gabor
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2008-07-14T16:28:56Z
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/* Biography */
{{ otherpersons|Gabor}}
{{Infobox_Scientist
| name = Dennis Gabor
| image = Gabor-magyarposta.jpg
| image_size = 168px
| caption = [[1988]] Hungarian stamp honoring Dennis Gabor
| birth_date = {{birth date|1900|6|5}}
| birth_place = [[Budapest]], [[Hungary]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1979|2|9|1900|6|5}}
| death_place = [[London]], [[England]]
| residence =
| nationality =
| field = [[Electrical engineering]]
| work_institution = [[Imperial College London]]<br>[[British Thomson-Houston]]
| alma_mater = [[Technical University of Berlin]]<br>[[Technical University of Budapest]]
| known_for = Invention of [[holography]]
| doctoral_advisor =
| awards = [[Image:Nobel prize medal.svg|20px]] [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1971)<br>[[IEEE Medal of Honor]] (1970)
}}
'''Dennis Gabor''' (original [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] name: '''Gábor Dénes'''), [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]], ([[June 5]], [[1900]], [[Budapest]] – [[February 9]], [[1979]], [[London]]) was a [[Hungarian people|Hungarian]] [[Electrical_engineering|electrical engineer]] and inventor, most notable for inventing [[holography]], for which he later received the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]].
==Biography==
Born Gábor Dénes,<ref name=KFnotes>
"Fizikai Szemle 1999/5 - Zsolt Bor: OPTICS BY HUNGARIANS" (with Dennis Gabor),
József Attila University, [[Szeged]], [[Hungary]], 1999, webpage:
[http://www.kfki.hu/fszemle/archivum/fsz9905/bor.html KFKI-Hungary-Bor].
</ref> Dennis Gabor studied at the [[Technical University of Budapest]] and, in [[Germany]], at the Charlottenburg Technical University in [[Berlin]], now known as the [[Technical University of Berlin]].<ref name=KFnotes/> At the start of his career, he analyzed the properties of high voltage electric transmission lines by using cathode-beam oscillographs, which led to his interest in electron optics.<ref name=KFnotes/> Studying the fundamental processes of the [[oscillograph]], Gabor was led to other electron-beam devices such as [[electron microscopes]] and TV tubes. He eventually wrote his [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] thesis concerning the [[cathode ray tube]] in [[1927]], and worked on [[plasma lamp]]s.<ref name=KFnotes/>
Having fled from [[Nazi Germany]] in [[1933]], Gabor was invited to Britain to work at the development department of the [[British Thomson-Houston]] company in [[Rugby, Warwickshire]]. During his time in Rugby, he met Marjorie Butler, and they married in [[1936]]. It was while working at British Thomson-Houston that he invented holography, in [[1947]].
Gabor's research focused on electron optics, which led him to the invention of [[holography]].<ref name=KFnotes/> The basic idea was that for perfect optical imaging, the total of all the information has to be used; not only the amplitude, as in usual optical imaging, but also the phase. In this manner a complete holo-spatial picture can be obtained.<ref name=KFnotes/> Gabor published his theories of optical imaging and holography in a series of papers between [[1946]] and [[1951]].<ref name=KFnotes/>
Gabor also researched how human beings communicate and hear; the result of his investigations was the theory of [[granular synthesis]], although [[Greek people|Greek]] composer [[Iannis Xenakis]] claimed that he was actually the first inventor of this synthesis technique.<ref>Xenakis, I.: ''Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition'' (Harmonologia Series No.6), preface xiii. Pendragon Press, 2001</ref>
At the time Gabor developed [[holography]], coherent light sources were not available, so the theory had to wait more than a decade until its first practical applications were realized, though he experimented with a heavily filtered [[mercury arc]] light source.<ref name=KFnotes/> The invention in [[1960]] of the [[laser]], the first coherent light source, was followed by the first hologram, in [[1963]], after which holography became commercially available.
In [[1948]] Gabor moved from Rugby to [[Imperial College London]], and in [[1958]] became professor of [[Applied Physics]] until his retirement in [[1967]]. While spending much of his retirement in [[Italy]], he remained connected with Imperial College as a Senior Research Fellow and also became Staff Scientist of [[CBS Laboratories]], in [[Stamford, Connecticut]]; there, he collaborated with his life-long friend, CBS Labs' president [[Peter Carl Goldmark|Dr. Peter C. Goldmark]] in many new schemes of communication and display. He developed an interest in social analysis and published ''[[The Mature Society: a view of the future]]'' in [[1972]]. Gabor wrote, "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."{{Fact|date=March 2007}}<!--Alan Kay is widely recognized as the author of this quote --->
Following the rapid development of lasers and a wide variety of holographic applications (e.g. art, information storage, recognition of patterns), Gabor achieved acknowledged success and worldwide attention during his lifetime.<ref name=KFnotes/> He received numerous awards besides the Nobel Prize.
The [[International Society for Optical Engineering]] (SPIE) presents its ''[http://www.spie.org/AboutSPIE/index.cfm?fuseaction=Awards_Gabor Dennis Gabor award]'' annually, "in recognition of outstanding accomplishments in diffractive wavefront technologies, especially those which further the development of holography and metrology applications."
The NOVOFER Foundation of the [[Hungarian Academy of Sciences]] annually presents its ''International Dennis Gabor Award'', for young scientists researching in the fields of physics and applied technology.
==Awards==
*1956 - Fellow of the [[Royal Society]]
*1964 - Honorary Member of the [[Hungarian Academy of Sciences]]
*1964 - D.Sc., [[University of London]]
*1967 - [[Young Medal and Prize]], for distinguished research in the field of [[optics]]
*1967 - Colombus Award of the International Institute for Communications, [[Genoa]]
*1968 - Albert Michelson Medal of The [[Franklin Institute]], [[Philadelphia]]
*1968 - [[Rumford Medal]] of the Royal Society
*1970 - [[Honorary Doctorate]], [[University of Southampton]]
*1970 - [[IEEE Medal of Honor|Medal of Honor]] of the [[Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers]]
*1970 - Commander of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (CBE)
*1971 - [[Nobel Prize in Physics]], for his invention and development of the holographic method
*1971 - [[Honorary Doctorate]], [[Delft University of Technology]]
*1971 - Prix Holweck of the Société Française de Physique
* Dennis-Gabor Strasse in [[Potsdam]] is named in his honor and is the location of the [http://www.pct-potsdam.de/ Potsdamer Centrum für Technologie].
== See also ==
* [[Gabor filter]]
* [[Gabor atoms]] (Gabor functions)
* [[Gabor Medal]]
== Bibliography ==
; Social analysis
* ''Inventing the Future'' (Secker & Warburg, 1963)
: "The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented. It was man's ability to invent which has made human society what it is." (Pelican Books, 1964, p. 161)
* ''Innovations: Scientific, Technological, and Social'' (1970)
* ''The Mature Society. A View of the Future (1972)
* ''Beyond the Age of Waste: A Report to the Club of Rome'' (Pergamon international library of science, technology, engineering and social studies, paperback, 1978)
== References ==
<references/>
*{{Citation
|id = [[PMID]]:379651
|url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/379651
|publication-date=1979 Aug 2
|year=[[1979]]
|title=Dennis Gabor, 1900-1979.
|volume=280
|issue=5721
|periodical=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]
|pages=431-3
}}
==External links==
* [http://www.nobel-winners.com/Physics/dennis_gabor.html Short biography]
* [http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1971/gabor-autobio.html Gabor's Nobel Prize lecture]
* [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1971/press.html Nobel Prize presentation speech] by Professor Erik Ingelstam of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]
* [http://www.geocities.com/neveyaakov/electro_science/gabor.html Bio with numerous pictures of Gabor]
* [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1971/gabor-autobio.html Short autobiography]
{{wikiquote}}
{{IEEE Medal of Honor Laureates 1951-1975}}
{{Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates 1951-1975}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabor, Dennis}}
{{Persondata
|NAME=Gabor, Denis
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Gábor Dénes (Hungarian)
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Nobel Prize-winning physicist and inventor of [[holography]]
|DATE OF BIRTH=[[June 5]], [[1900]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Budapest]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
|DATE OF DEATH=[[February 9]], [[1979]]
|PLACE OF DEATH=[[London]], [[United Kingdom]]
}}
[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:1979 deaths]]
[[Category:Academics of Imperial College London]]
[[Category:British Jews]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Futurologists]]
[[Category:Hungarian inventors]]
[[Category:Hungarian Jews]]
[[Category:Hungarian Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Hungarian physicists]]
[[Category:IEEE Medal of Honor recipients]]
[[Category:Jewish inventors|Gabor]]
[[Category:Jewish scientists]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physics]]
[[Category:People from Budapest]]
[[Category:Hungarian refugees]]
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