Louis Ridenour

Louis N. Ridenour (June 27, 1911 – May 21, 1959) was a physicist instrumental in U.S. development of radar, Vice President of Lockheed, and an advisor to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In 1941 he became the assistant director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory and helped transform primitive radar into a reliable defensive and offensive military tool. In 1946 Ridenour returned to the University of Pennsylvania for one year and then in 1947 he became dean of the Graduate College of the University of Illinois. During the next three years as dean, he was instrumental in establishing the Control Systems Laboratory, the Digital Computer Laboratory, and the Radio Carbon Laboratory, as well as a microbiology group and solid state group.

Author of Radar System Engineering, volume 1 of MIT Radiation Laboratory Series. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1947.

During World War II, Ridenour worked at the MIT Radiation Laboratory. He was co-leader with Ivan A. Getting of the group that developed the SCR-584 radar. He directed a committee in 1949 that recommended the establishment of a separate Research and Development Command and a new Air Staff Deputy Chief of Staff for Research and Development. In 1950, Ridenour was named the first Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force.

He was Chairman of the National Security Agency Scientific Advisory Board Panel on Electronics and Data Processing from its inception January 27, 1959 until his death in May.

Ridenour died of a brain hemorrhage on May 21, 1959 at age 47. His close associate Dudley Allen Buck died the same day.

In 1960 he was awarded posthumously the Theodore von Kármán Award from the Air Force Association.