VLADIMIR K(OZMA) ZWORYKIN. Born in Mourom, Russia, 30 July 1889. Degree in engineering from St. Petersburg Institute of Technology (Russia), 1912; attended College de France, 1912-14; University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., Ph.D., 1926. Married: 1) Tatiana Vasilieff, 1916 (divorced); two children; 2) Katherine Polevitsky, 1951. Served in Signal Corps, Russian Army, World War I. Immigrated to U.S., 1919; naturalized, 1924. Bookkeeper, financial agent, Russian Embassy, Washington, D.C., 1919-20; electronics researcher, Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, Pittsburgh, 1920, 1922, 1923-29; researcher, electronics development firm, Kansas 1922-23; filed first of 120 patents, for electronic camera tube called an "iconoscope," 1923; patented kinescope, 1924; patented color television, 1929; director of electronics research lab, Radio Corporation of America (RCA), Camden, New Jersey, 1929-42; sponsored development of early version of electron microscope, 1940; associate research director, RCA Labs, Princeton, New Jersey, 1942-45; director of electronic research, 1946-54; vice president, from 1947; honorary vice president and consultant, 1954-82; director, Medical Electronics Research Center, Rockefeller Institute (now Rockefeller University), New York City, from 1954; developed radio endosonde, 1957; developed ultraviolet color-translating television microscope, 1957; researcher, Princeton University, 1970s; visiting professor, Institute for Molecular and Cellular Evolution, University of Miami, 1970-82; contributed numerous papers concerning electronics to scientific journals. National chair, Professional Group on Medical Electronics, Institute of Radio Engineers; founder and president, International Federation for Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering; officer of the Academy, French Ministry of Education; governor, International Institute for Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering, Paris. Fellow: American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Institute of Physics; American Physical Society; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Member: American Academy of Arts and Sciences; American Philosophical Society; charter member, Electron Microscope Society of America; National Academy of Engineering; National Academy of Sciences; charter member, Society of Television Engineers; charter member, Society of Television Pioneers; Sigma Xi. Honorary fellow: Institute Internazionale delle Comunicazione, Italy; Television Society, England. Honorary member: British Institute of Radio Engineers; Société Francaise des Électriciens et des Radioélectriciens; Television Engineers of Japan. Eminent member, Eta Kappa Nu Association. Recipient: Liebman Memorial Prize, 1934; Overseas Award, 1939; National Association of Manufacturers Modern Pioneer Award, 1940; American Academy of Arts and Sciences Rumford Medal, 1941; U.S. War Department Certificate of Appreciation, 1945; U.S. Navy Certificate of Commendation, 1947; Franklin Institute Potts Medal, 1947; Presidential Certificate of Merit, 1948; chevalier, Légion d'Honneur, 1948; American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) Lamme Medal, 1949; Poor Richard Club Gold Medal of Achievement, 1949; Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers Progress Medal, 1950; Medal of Honor, 1951; establishment of Television Prize in his name by the Institute of Radio Engineers, 1952; AIEE Edison Medal, 1952; Union Francaise des Inventeurs Gold Medal, 1954; University of Liege Trasenster Medal, 1959; Christoforo Columbo Award and Order of Merit, Italy, 1959; Broadcast Pioneers Award, 1960; American Society of Metals Sauveur Award, 1963; University of Liege Medical Electronics Medal, 1963; British Institution of Electrical Engineers Faraday Medal, 1965; DeForest Audion Award, 1966; National Medal of Science, 1966; American Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award, 1967; National Academy of Engineering Founders Medal, 1968; named to National Inventor's Hall of Fame, 1977; Eduard Rhein Foundation ring, 1980. Died in Princeton, New Jersey, 29 July 1982.

PUBLICATIONS

Photocells and Their Applications, with E.D. Wilson. New York: Wiley, 1930.

Television: The Electronics of Image Transmission, with G.A. Morton. New York: Wiley, 1940.

Electron Optics and the Electron Microscope, with G.A. Morton, E.G. Ramberg, and others. New York: Wiley, 1945.

Photoelectricity and its Application, with E.G. Ramberg. New York: Wiley, 1949.

Television: The Electronics of Image Transmission in Color and Monochrome, with G.A. Morton. New York: Wiley, 1954.

Television in Science and Industry, with E.G. Ramberg, and L.E. Flory. New York: Wiley, 1958.

For his fundamental and crucial work in creating the iconoscope and the kinescope, inventor Vladimir Zworykin is often described as "the father of television". These basic technologies revolutionized television and led to the worldwide adoption of electronic television rather than mechanical television, a device which used synchronized moving parts to generate rudimentary pictures.

At the Petersburg Institute of Technology, Zworykin studied electrical engineering with Boris Rosing, who believed cathode ray tubes would be useful in television's development because they could shoot a steady stream of charged particles. After graduating from St. Petersburg in 1912, he studied X-ray technology with well-known French physicist Paul Langevin at the College de France in Paris. Both experiences influenced Zworykin's later work after he emigrated to the United States in 1919.

In 1920 Zworykin joined Westinghouse to work on the development of radio tubes and photocells. While there, he earned his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Pittsburgh and wrote his dissertation on improving photoelectric cells. But electronic television's development captured his attention, and in December 1923 he applied for a patent for the iconoscope, which produced pictures by scanning images. Within the year he applied for a patent for the kinescope, which reproduced those scanned images on a picture tube. Electronic television was now possible. But, after demonstrating his new system to Westinghouse executives, they decided not to pursue his research.

He found a more receptive audience in 1929 at the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), where he was hired as associate research director for RCA's electronic research laboratory in Camden, New Jersey. This same year, he filed his first patent for color television. Reportedly, Zworykin told RCA president David Sarnoff that it would take $100,000 to perfect television. Sarnoff later told the New York Times, "RCA spent $50 million before we ever got a penny back from TV."

In 1930, Zworykin's experiments with G.A. Morton on infrared rays led to the development of night-seeing devices. He also began to apply television technology to microscopy, which led to RCA's development of the electron microscope. His work also led to text readers, electric eyes used in security systems and garage door openers, and electronically-controlled missiles and vehicles. During World War II he advised several defense organizations, and immediately after the war, he worked with Princeton professor John von Neumann to develop computer applications for accurate weather forecasting.

After retiring from RCA in 1954, he was named an honorary vice president and its technical consultant. He was also appointed director of the Medical Electronics Center at Rockefeller University, and worked on electronically based medical applications.

Zworykin received numerous awards related to these inventions, especially television. They included the Institute of Radio Engineers' Morris Liebmann Memorial prize in 1934; the American Institute of Electrical Engineers' highest honor in 1952, the Edison Medal; and the National Academy of Sciences' National Medial of Science in 1967.

-Louise Benjamin