Zoltán Lajos Bay
Zoltán Lajos Bay | |
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| Born | July 24, 1900 Gyulavári, Hungary |
| Died | October 4, 1992 (aged 92) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Nationality | Hungarian |
| Citizenship | Hungarian American |
| Occupation(s) | Physicist, inventor |
| Known for | Electron multiplier, radar astronomy, the new definition of a meter (metre) |
| Righteous Among the Nations |
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| By country |
Zoltán Lajos Bay (July 24, 1900 in Gyulavári – October 4, 1992 in Washington, D.C.)[1] was a Hungarian physicist, professor, and engineer who developed technologies, including tungsten lamps and microwave devices. He was the leader of the second group to observe radar echoes from the Moon (Moonbounce). From 1930, he worked at the University of Szeged as a professor of theoretical physics.
In 1923 at Tungsram Ltd., a research laboratory was established for improving light sources, mainly electric bulbs.[1] The head of that laboratory was Ignác Pfeifer, whose research staff included Zoltán Bay, along with Tivadar Millner, Imre Bródy, György Szigeti, Ernő Winter, and many others.[1]
György Szigeti worked together with Zoltán Bay on metal-vapor lamps and fluorescent light sources. They received a U.S. patent on "Electroluminescent light sources" which were made of silicon carbide; these light sources were the ancestors of light-emitting diodes (LEDs).[1]
In 1955, Zoltán Bay became head of the Department of Nuclear Physics in the National Bureau of Standards (NBS, called today NIST), where he measured the velocity and frequency of light by a previously unknown measurement method.[2][failed verification] As a result of Bay's research, the 1983 conference of the International Weights and Measures Bureau accepted, as a standard, the definition of a meter (metre)[3] as recommended by Zoltán Bay.
In 1998, the State of Israel recognized him as among the Righteous Among the Nations and listed his name at Yad Vashem as rescuer number 6497.[4][5] A relative with the same name invented Bay radial speaker:BayZ
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b c d "Fizikai Szemle 1999/5 - Zsolt Bor: OPTICS BY HUNGARIANS" (with Zoltán Bay), József Attila University, Szeged, Hungary, 1999 KFKI-Hungary-Bor
- ^ "Zoltán Bay, whose name the Foundation bears" (life), Bay Zoltán Institute of Logistics and Production Engineering (Bay-Logi), Bay Zoltán Foundation for Applied Research, 1994, webpage:BZLogi Biography at Bay Zoltán Foundation.
- ^ Resolution 1 of the 17th CGPM (CGPM, 1983), retrieved from BIPM database (BIPM, n.d.) on 24 August 2008.
- ^ Zoltán Lajos Bay – his activity to save Jews' lives during the Holocaust, at Yad Vashem website(link appears to be to another Bay family Rozalia Zemlyanskaya-Bay rescuer #8947 of Ukraine)
- ^ http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/pdf-drupal/hungary.pdf this is the only correct mention of Zoltán Lajos I found on Yad Vshem website
Further reading
[edit]- Nagy Ferenc 1993: Bay Zoltán pályája és példája dokumentumokban. Gyűjt., vál., szerk. Nagy Ferenc. Budapest: Better - OMIKK - Püski, 1993. Page 135.
External links
[edit]- KFKI notes on Zoltan Bay
- HPO-Hungary on Zoltan Bay Archived 2010-12-02 at the Wayback Machine
- BzLogi-Hungary-Bzaka on Zoltan Bay
- Zoltan Bay Foundation for Applied Research
- Retrotechtacular: [Zoltán Bay’s] Moon Bounce Coulometer Signal Amplifier
- Reflection of microwaves from the Moon
- Zoltan Bay and his Chemical Moonbounce Detector
- TO SEE THE UNSEEN. A History of Planetary Radar Astronomy
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- 1900 births
- 1992 deaths
- People from Gyula
- Hungarian emigrants to the United States
- 20th-century Hungarian inventors
- Hungarian nuclear physicists
- Hungarian Righteous Among the Nations
- Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
- Academic staff of the University of Szeged
- George Washington University faculty
- Fellows of the American Physical Society