Biography:George E. Valley Jr.
George E. Valley Jr. was a 20th Century nuclear physicist who joined the MIT Radiation Laboratory in 1940, where he led the development of the H2X radar bombsight. After the war he became a professor of physics at MIT.
Valley received his PhD in physics in 1939 from the University of Rochester. He was on faculty of MIT from 1947 to 1974, and was concurrently Chief Scientist of the Air Force from 1957 to 1958.[1]
In 1946 Valley joined the US Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, where he conceived of the idea of a nationwide air defense system that used long-range radar to patrol the nation's perimeter, and then dispatched missiles or fighters to intercept incoming Soviet bombers. This idea led to the founding of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory and the eventual creation of the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment.
Valley returned to MIT in 1959. In 1969 he founded MIT's Experimental Study Group, an optional interdisciplinary study program for MIT's first-year students.[2]
In recognition of Valley's contributions to physics, the American Physical Society created the George E. Valley, Jr. Prize, which awards $10,000 annually to "early-career individual for an outstanding scientific contribution to physics that is deemed to have significant potential for a dramatic impact on the field."[3]
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