BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN " GEORGE EDWARD ALCORN Jr : IS A PIONEER AFRICAN AMERICAN PHYSICIST AND INVENTOR WHO WORKED PRIMARILY FOR IBM AND NASA : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK HEROES "

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                            George Edward Alcorn, Jr.

George Edward Alcorn, Jr. (b. March 22, 1940) is a pioneer African-American physicist and inventor who worked primarily for IBM and NASA. ^[1]

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, Saturn IV, and the [Nova (rocket)|Nova]].^[2]

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