The Grainger College of Engineering

H. William Koch

H. William Koch
H. William Koch
To H. William Koch for his twenty years of service to physics and engineering communities, and for his nuturing of techinical communications and publications during the information revolution.

Retired Executive Director, American Institute of Physics, New York, New York

  • MS, Physics, 1942
  • PhD, Physics, 1944

An assistant professor at UIUC from 1944 to 1949, H. William Koch worked on the betatron experiments. From 1949 to 1966, he was with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (formerly the National Bureau of Standards) as a research physicist in nuclear and high-energy x-ray physics, becoming chief of the Radiation Physics Division. While there, Koch’s Group developed the world’s first large-aperture 180 MeV circulator accelerator for synchrotron-light research and a high power 100 MeV electron linear accelerator. Synchrotron-light sources are now in increasing demand for basic research and for microfabrication in the electronics industry. In 1966 he was appointed director of the American Institute of Physics, from which he retired as executive director in 1987. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America.

Current as of 1989.