Compare Constellations

Physicist, Professor of Physics at Iowa State University (1948-1981). Gordon Danielson was born in Dover, Idaho in 1912, and moved to Canada while still young. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of British Columbia, and obtained the Ph. D. degree from Purdue University in 1940. He moved in 1942 to the Radiation Laboratory at MIT, where he was the associate group leader for radar beacons, and later spent a year in England at the Laboratory's British operation on radar development. In 1946 he became a member of the staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories where he worked primarily on barium titanate. At this time, he developed an interest in the properties of semiconductors which continued throughout his lifetime. He came to Iowa State University in 1948 to establish the solid state physics program in the Physics Dept. and the Ames Laboratory. He authored 98 papers in the field of solid state physics, and was named Distinguished Professor of Science and Humanities in 1964.

Danielson made many important contributions to research, including the discovery (with Lancos in 1942) of the Fast Fourier Transform, the development of transient methods for measurements of thermal diffusivity and heat capacity at high temperatures, studies of the properties of Mg₂Si and related semiconducting compounds, and the preparation and characterization of the sodium tungsten bronzes. He was an enthusiastic and understanding teacher who rapidly developed a sympathetic relationship with students at all levels. He was a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the Iowa Academy of Sciences, and held active memberships in Sigma Xi and Phi Kappa Phi. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for the year 1958-59, which he spent at the University of Cambridge, England, establishing a number of lasting friendships. He served on many national panels and committees in the area of solid state physics.