My father joined the Navy, served in the Korean War and became a non-commissioned officer.<\/p>\n
While enlisted, he took a class in radio\/radar technology. The instructor, a well-respected engineer, turned out to be a great teacher – at least for my father. Which is great enough for me.<\/p>\n
![\"Vacuum](\"http:\/\/judykat.com\/ken-judy\/wp-content\/uploads\/public\/blogimages\/radio-tubes-350.jpg\" "\\"Vacuum")
My father became the best student in the class. The instructor’s encouragement convinced him to pursue a career in engineering.<\/p>\n
My father earned degrees in electrical and a nuclear engineering and made a long career working with technologies evolved from those he learned in that first class.<\/p>\n
Now retired, my father decided to find out who this teacher was who had made such an impact on his life.<\/p>\n
Nick Holonyak<\/a> invented the Light Emitting Diode (LED). He is winner of the IEEE Medal of Honor<\/a>. <\/p>\n Before that he was the first post graduate student of John Bardeen<\/a> who with fellow Nobel Laureate, Walter Brattain<\/a>, invented the first transistor. <\/p>\n Somewhere in between these accomplishments, he taught engineering to a class of military personnel.<\/p>\n When my father speaks of Nick Holonyak it is with gratitude and wonder.<\/p>\n I encourage my grade school aged daughter to love science. This year, my daughter’s robotics team competed at the New York City FIRST LEGO League<\/a> Championship.<\/p>\n These are perhaps small things to a man who assisted Nobel Laureates, won prestigious engineering awards, worked at Bell and GE Labs and continues to teach at a research university in a position he’s held for over forty years.<\/p>\n But Nick Holonyak is the reason my father became an engineer. His teaching kindled an enthusiasm that is a source of generational wealth to our family.<\/p>\n Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a boy growing up in West Virginia, my father wanted to study science but a high school teacher convinced him he had no talent for it. That man was not why my father became an engineer. My father joined … Continue reading ![\"New](\"http:\/\/judykat.com\/ken-judy\/wp-content\/uploads\/public\/blogimages\/lego-first-2010-small.jpg\" "\\"New")
My father, the engineer, encouraged me to love science. I studied mathematics and physics and make my living building software. <\/p>\n