Dennis Gabor

{{Infobox scientist

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|size=100%|CBE|FRS}}

| image = Dennis Gabor 1971b.jpg

| caption = Gabor in 1971

| birth_name = Günszberg Dénes

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1900|6|5}}

| birth_place = Budapest, Austria-Hungary

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1979|2|9|1900|6|5}}

| death_place = London, England

| citizenship = Hungary
United Kingdom (1946–1979)

| alma_mater = Technische Universität Berlin
Technical University of Budapest

| known_for = {{ubl|Inventing holography|Gabor atom|Gabor filter|Gabor limit|Gabor transform|Gabor wavelet}}

| spouse = {{marriage|Marjorie Louise Butler|1936}}

| awards = {{ubl|FRS (1956){{cite journal|doi=10.1098/rsbm.1980.0004 |title=Dennis Gabor. 5 June 1900 – 9 February 1979 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society |volume=26 |page=106 |year=1980 |last1=Allibone |first1=T. E. |s2cid=53732181 |doi-access= }}|Young Medal and Prize (1967)|Rumford Medal (1968)|IEEE Medal of Honor (1970)|Nobel Prize in Physics (1971)}}

| fields = Physics

| work_institutions = Imperial College London
British Thomson-Houston

| doctoral_advisor =

| doctoral_students = {{Plainlist|

Anthony G. Constantinides
Eric Ash{{cite journal|last=Shewchuck |first=S. |date=December 1952 |title=SUMMARY OF RESEARCH PROGRESS MEETINGS OF OCT. 16, 23 AND 30, 1952 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8q49q2c9 |journal=Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |page=3}} }}

}}

Dennis Gabor ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|g|ɑː|b|ɔr|,_|g|ə|ˈ|b|ɔr}} {{respell|GAH|bor|,_|gə|BOR}};{{Cite American Heritage Dictionary|Gabor|access-date=26 July 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/gabor|title=Gabor|work=Collins English Dictionary|publisher=HarperCollins|access-date=26 July 2019}}{{Cite dictionary |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Gabor,+Dennis |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625100059/https://www.lexico.com/definition/gabor,_dennis |url-status=dead |archive-date=2021-06-25 |title=Gabor, Dennis |dictionary=Lexico UK English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press}}{{Cite Merriam-Webster|Gabor|access-date=26 July 2019}} {{langx|hu|Gábor Dénes}} {{IPA|hu|ˈɡaːbor ˈdeːnɛʃ|}}; 5 June 1900 – 9 February 1979) was a Hungarian-British physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1971 for his invention of holography.{{cite journal | doi = 10.1038/280431a0 | title = Dennis Gabor, 1900–1979 | journal = Nature | volume = 280 | issue = 5721 | pages = 431–433 | year = 1979 | pmid = 379651|bibcode = 1979Natur.280..431A | last1 = Ash | first1 = Eric A. | doi-access = free }}Gabor, Dennis (1944). The electron microscope : Its development, present performance and future possibilities. London. {{ISBN missing}}Gabor, Dennis (1963). Inventing the Future. London : Secker & Warburg. {{ISBN missing}}Gabor, Dennis (1970). Innovations: Scientific, Technological, and Social. London: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN missing}}Gabor, Dennis (1972). The Mature Society. A View of the Future. London : Secker & Warburg. {{ISBN missing}}Gabor, Dennis; and Colombo, Umberto (1978). Beyond the Age of Waste: A Report to the Club of Rome. Oxford : Pergamon Press. {{ISBN missing}} He obtained British citizenship in 1946 and spent most of his life in England.{{cite web |url= https://www.sztnh.gov.hu/hu/magyar-feltalalok-es-talalmanyaik/gabor-denes |title= GÁBOR DÉNES |lang= hu |date= 25 April 2016 |website= sztnh.gov.hu |publisher= Szellemi Tulajdon Nemzeti Hivatala |access-date= 19 July 2021}}{{cite web |url= https://itf.njszt.hu/szemely/gabor-denes |title= Gábor Dénes |date= 28 August 2019 |website= itf.njszt.hu | lang = hu |publisher= Neumann János Számítógép-tudományi Társaság |access-date= 19 July 2021}}{{cite book|last1 = Wasson|first1 = Tyler|first2 = Gert H.|last2 = Brieger|title = Nobel Prize Winners: An H. W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary|publisher = H. W. Wilson|year = 1987|page =359|isbn = 0-8242-0756-4|url-access = registration|url = https://archive.org/details/nobelprizewinner0000unse_k3o3/page/359}}

Life and career

Gabor was born as Günszberg Dénes, into a Jewish family in Budapest, Austria-Hungary. In 1900, his family converted to Lutheranism.[http://www.bookrags.com/biography/dennis-gabor-wop/ Dennis Gabor Biography]. Bookrags.com (2 November 2010). Retrieved on 7 September 2017. Dennis was the first-born son of Günszberg Bernát and Jakobovits Adél. Despite having a religious background, religion played a minor role in his later life and he considered himself agnostic.{{cite book|title=Notable Scientists from 1900 to the Present: D-H|year=2001|publisher=Gale Group|isbn=978-0-7876-1753-0|author=Brigham Narins|page=[https://archive.org/details/notablescientist0005unse/page/797 797]|quote=Although Gabor's family became Lutherans in 1918, religion appeared to play a minor role in his life. He maintained his church affiliation through his adult years but characterized himself as a "benevolent agnostic".|url=https://archive.org/details/notablescientist0005unse/page/797}} In 1902, the family received permission to change their surname from Günszberg to Gábor. He served with the Hungarian artillery in northern Italy during World War I.{{cite book|title=Holographic Visions|last=Johnston|first=Sean|year=2006|isbn=978-0-19-857122-3|page=17|chapter=Wavefront Reconstruction and beyond|publisher=OUP Oxford |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B8dcFC43QWoC&pg=PA17}}

He began his studies in engineering at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in 1918, later in Germany, at the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg in Berlin, now known as Technische Universität Berlin.{{cite journal|last = Bor|first = Zsolt|author-link = Zsolt Bor|title = Optics by Hungarians|journal = Fizikai Szemle|volume = 5| page = 202|year = 1999|url = http://www.kfki.hu/fszemle/archivum/fsz9905/bor.html|issn = 0015-3257|access-date = 5 June 2010|bibcode = 1999AcHA....5..202Z}} At the start of his career, he analysed the properties of high voltage electric transmission lines by using cathode-beam oscillographs, which led to his interest in electron optics. Studying the fundamental processes of the oscillograph, Gabor was led to other electron-beam devices such as electron microscopes and TV tubes. He eventually wrote his PhD thesis on Recording of Transients in Electric Circuits with the Cathode Ray Oscillograph in 1927, and worked on plasma lamps.

In 1933 Gabor fled from Nazi Germany, where he was considered Jewish, and was invited to Britain to work at the development department of the British Thomson-Houston company in Rugby, Warwickshire. During his time in Rugby, he met Marjorie Louise Butler, and they married in 1936. He became a British citizen in 1946,{{cite book|last1 = Wasson|first1 = Tyler|first2 = Gert H.|last2 = Brieger|title = Nobel Prize Winners: An H. W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary|publisher = H. W. Wilson|year = 1987|page =359|isbn = 0-8242-0756-4|url-access = registration|url = https://archive.org/details/nobelprizewinner0000unse_k3o3/page/359}} and it was while working at British Thomson-Houston in 1947 that he invented holography, based on an electron microscope, and thus electrons instead of visible light.{{cite patent| inventor-last = British Thomson-Houston Company| country-code = GB| publication-date = 1947| patent-number = patent GB685286}} He experimented with a heavily filtered mercury arc light source. The earliest visual hologram was only realised in 1964 following the 1960 invention of the laser, the first coherent light source. After this, holography became commercially available.

Gabor's research focused on electron inputs and outputs, which led him to the invention of holography. The basic idea was that for perfect optical imaging, the total of all the information has to be used; not only the amplitude, as in usual optical imaging, but also the phase. In this manner, a complete holo-spatial picture can be obtained. Gabor published his theories of holography in a series of papers between 1946 and 1951.

Gabor also researched how human beings communicate and hear; the result of his investigations was the theory of granular synthesis, although Greek composer Iannis Xenakis claimed that he was actually the first inventor of this synthesis technique.{{cite book| last = Xenakis| first = Iannis| title = Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition| publisher = Pendragon Pr.| year = 2001| volume = 9th| edition = 2nd| pages = preface xiii| isbn = 1-57647-079-2}} Gabor's work in this and related areas was foundational in the development of time–frequency analysis.

In 1948 Gabor moved from Rugby to Imperial College London, and in 1958 became professor of Applied Physics until his retirement in 1967. His inaugural lecture on 3 March 1959, 'Electronic Inventions and their Impact on Civilisation' provided inspiration for Norbert Wiener's treatment of self-reproducing machines in the penultimate chapter in the 1961 edition of his book Cybernetics.

As part of his many developments related to CRTs, in 1958 Gabor patented a new flat screen television concept. This used an electron gun aimed perpendicular to the screen, rather than straight at it. The beam was then directed forward to the screen using a series of fine metal wires on either side of the beam path. The concept was significantly similar to the Aiken tube, introduced in the US the same year. This led to a many-years patent battle which resulted in Aiken keeping the US rights and Gabor the UK. Gabor's version was later picked up by Clive Sinclair in the 1970s, and became a decades-long quest to introduce the concept commercially. Its difficult manufacturing, due to the many wires within the vacuum tube, meant this was never successful. While looking for a company willing to try to manufacture it, Sinclair began negotiations with Timex, who instead took over production of the ZX81.{{cite book |first1=Ian |last1=Adamson |first2=Richard |last2=Kennedy |publisher= Penguin |date=1986 |title=Sinclair and the 'sunrise' Technology |pages=91–92}}

In 1963 Gabor published Inventing the Future which discussed the three major threats Gabor saw to modern society: war, overpopulation and the Age of Leisure. The book contained the now well-known expression that "the future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented." Reviewer Nigel Calder described his concept as, "His basic approach is that we cannot predict the future, but we can invent it..." Others such as Alan Kay, Peter Drucker, and Forrest Shaklee have used various forms of similar quotes.{{cite web|url=http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/09/27/invent-the-future/|archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20131226085813/http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/09/27/invent%2Dthe%2Dfuture/|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 December 2013|title=We Cannot Predict the Future, But We Can Invent It|publisher=quoteinvestigator.com|date=27 September 2012|access-date=3 May 2015}} His next book, Innovations: scientific, technological, and social which was published in 1970, expanded on some of the topics he had already earlier touched upon, and also pointed to his interest in technological innovation as mechanism of both liberation and destruction.

File:Dennis Gabor 1971.jpg

In 1971 he was the single recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics with the motivation "for his invention and development of the holographic method"{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1971/ |title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1971|publisher=nobelprize.org}} and presented the history of the development of holography from 1948 in his Nobel lecture.

While spending much of his retirement in Italy at Lavinio Rome, he remained connected with Imperial College as a senior research fellow and also became staff scientist of CBS Laboratories, in Stamford, Connecticut; there, he collaborated with his lifelong friend, CBS Labs' president Dr. Peter C. Goldmark in many new schemes of communication and display. One of Imperial College's new halls of residence in Prince's Gardens, Knightsbridge is named Gabor Hall in honour of Gabor's contribution to Imperial College. He developed an interest in social analysis and published The Mature Society: a view of the future in 1972.{{cite web |url=http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Dennis_Gabor |title=Dennis Gabor |author=IEEE Global History Network |year=2011 |publisher=IEEE History Center |access-date=14 July 2011}} He also joined the Club of Rome and supervised a working group studying energy sources and technical change. The findings of this group were published in the report Beyond the Age of Waste in 1978, a report which was an early warning of several issues that only later received widespread attention.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/beyondageofwaste0000gabo|title=Club of Rome: Beyond the Age of Waste|author1=Gabor, Dennis|author2=Colombo, Umberto|author3=King, Alexander|author4=Galli, Riccardo|publisher=Pergamon Press|isbn=0-08-021834-2|year=1978|url-access=registration}}

Following the rapid development of lasers and a wide variety of holographic applications (e.g., art, information storage, and the recognition of patterns), Gabor achieved acknowledged success and worldwide attention during his lifetime. He received numerous awards besides the Nobel Prize.

Gabor died in a nursing home in South Kensington, London, on 9 February 1979. In 2006 a blue plaque was put up on No. 79 Queen's Gate in Kensington, where he lived from 1949 until the early 1960s.{{cite news|url=http://www.gov-news.org/gov/uk/news/blue_plaque_for_dennis_gabor_inventor_of/63353.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202225540/http://www.gov-news.org/gov/uk/news/blue_plaque_for_dennis_gabor_inventor_of/63353.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=2 December 2013|title=Blue Plaque for Dennis Gabor, inventor of Holograms|publisher=Government News|date=1 June 2006|access-date=23 November 2013}}

Personal life

On 8 August 1936, he married Marjorie Louise Butler. They did not have any children.

Publications

The Electron Microscope (1934)
Inventing the Future (1963)
Innovations: Scientific, Technological, and Social (1970)
The Mature Society (1972)
Proper Priorities of Science and Technology (1972)
Beyond the Age of Waste: A Report to the Club of Rome (1979, with U. Colombo, A. King en R. Galli)

Awards and honors

1956 – Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
1964 – Honorary Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
1964 – D.Sc., University of London
1967 – Young Medal and Prize, for distinguished research in the field of optics
1967 – Columbus Award of the International Institute for Communications, Genoa
1968 – The first Albert A. Michelson Medal from The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia{{cite web|url=http://www.fi.edu/winners/show_results.faw?gs=&ln=&fn=&keyword=&subject=&award=MICH+&sy=1967&ey=1997&name=Submit |title=Franklin Laureate Database – Albert A. Michelson Medal Laureates |publisher=Franklin Institute |access-date=14 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406103546/http://www.fi.edu/winners/show_results.faw?gs=&ln=&fn=&keyword=&subject=&award=MICH+&sy=1967&ey=1997&name=Submit |archive-date=6 April 2012 }}
1968 – Rumford Medal of the Royal Society
1970 – Honorary Doctorate, University of Southampton
1970 – Medal of Honor of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
1970 – Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
1971 – Nobel Prize in Physics, for his invention and development of the holographic method
1971 – Honorary Doctorate, Delft University of Technology
1972 – Holweck Prize of the Société Française de Physique
1972 – Honorary Member of the Optical Society of America
1983 – the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) established the annual Dennis Gabor Award, "in recognition of outstanding accomplishments in diffractive wavefront technologies, especially those which further the development of holography and metrology applications."{{cite web

| title = Dennis Gabor Award

| publisher = SPIE

| year = 2010

| url = http://spie.org/x48.xml

| access-date = 4 June 2010

| archive-date = 25 October 2015

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151025105338/https://spie.org/x48.xml

| url-status = dead

}}

1989 – the Royal Society of London began issuing the Gabor Medal for "acknowledged distinction of interdisciplinary work between the life sciences with other disciplines".{{cite web| title = The Gabor Medal (1989)| publisher = Royal Society| year = 2009| url = http://royalsociety.org/Gabor-Medal/| access-date = 4 June 2010}}
1992 – Gábor Dénes College in Budapest, Hungary, is named after Gabor.
1993 – the NOVOFER Foundation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences established its annual International Dennis Gabor Award, for outstanding young scientists researching in the fields of physics and applied technology.
2000 – the asteroid 72071 Gábor is named after Gabor.
2008 – the Institute of Physics renamed its Duddell Medal and Prize, established in 1923, into the Dennis Gabor Medal and Prize.
2009 – Imperial College London opened the Gabor Hall.[https://www.imperial.ac.uk/study/campus-life/accommodation/halls/ug/eastside/ Eastside Halls]. imperial.ac.uk
Dennis-Gabor-Straße in Potsdam is named in his honour and is the location of the Potsdamer Centrum für Technologie.

In popular culture

The Gabor family from the animated TV series Jem and The Holograms was named after Dennis Gabor.
On 5 June 2010, the logo for the Google website was drawn to resemble a hologram in honour of Dennis Gabor's 110th birthday.{{cite news| title = Dennis Gabor's birth celebrated by Google doodle | newspaper = The Telegraph | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/7805641/Dennis-Gabors-birth-celebrated-by-Google-doodle.html| access-date = 5 June 2010 | location=London | date=5 June 2010}}
In David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, Hal suggests that "Dennis Gabor may very well have been the Antichrist."{{cite journal | title=Infinite Jest | last = Wallace | first = David Foster | publisher = Little, Brown and Co. | location = New York | year = 1996 | page = 12 | title-link = Infinite Jest }}

References

Category:Hungarian physicists

External links

{{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1970 Magnetism and the Local Molecular Field
[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1971/press.html Nobel Prize presentation speech] by Professor Erik Ingelstam of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080727213029/http://www.geocities.com/neveyaakov/electro_science/gabor.html |date=27 July 2008 |title=Biography }}
{{Internet Archive author |sname =Dennis Gabor}}