Quick Facts
Biography
George Edward Alcorn, Jr. (born March 22, 1940) is an American physicist and inventor who worked primarily for IBM and NASA. Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2015.
Early life
Alcorn was born on March 22, 1940 to George and Arletta Dixon Alcorn.
Education
Alcorn received a four-year academic scholarship to Occidental College in Los Angeles, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics. He received his degree with honors while earning eight letters in basketball and football. Alcorn earned a Master of Science in Nuclear Physics in 1963 from Howard University, after nine months of study. During the summers of 1962 and 1963, he worked as a research engineer for the Space Division of North American Rockwell. He was involved with the computer analysis of launch trajectories and orbital mechanics for Rockwell missiles, including the Titan I and II, Nova.
Patents issued
- #4,172,004, 10/23/1979, Method for forming dense dry etched multi-level metallurgy with non-overlapped vias
- #4,201,800, 5/6/1980, Hardened photoresist master image mask process
- #4,289,834, 9/15/1981, Dense dry etched multi-level metallurgy with non-overlapped vias
- #4,472,728, 9/18/1984, Imaging X-ray spectrometer
- #4,543,442, 9/24/1985, GaAs Schottky barrier photo-responsive device and method of fabrication
- #4,618,380, 10/21/1986, Method of fabricating an imaging X-ray spectrometer
- #4,062,720, 12/13/1977, Process for forming ledge-free aluminum copper silicon conductor structure
- #3,986,912, 10/19/1976, Process for controlling the wall inclination of a plasma etched via hole