William Harry Vaughan, Jr. (born February 9, 1900) was a professor of

ceramic engineering Ceramic engineering is the science and technology of creating objects from inorganic, non-metallic materials. This is done either by the action of heat, or at lower temperatures using precipitation reactions from high-purity chemical solutions ...

at the

Georgia School of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

and the founder and first director of what is now the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

Education

Vaughan graduated from Georgia Tech with a Bachelor of Science degree in

engineering chemistry Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

in 1923. While at Georgia Tech, Vaughan was a member of

Phi Kappa Phi The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (or simply Phi Kappa Phi or ) is an honor society established in 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to area of study, and to promote the "unity and democracy of education ...

and Pi Delta Epsilon; a contributor to ''

The Technique The ''Technique'', also known as the "''Nique''", is the official student newspaper of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, and has referred to itself as "the South's liveliest college newspaper" since ...

'' in 1918 and 1919; Assistant Editor (1922) and Editor-in-Chief (1923) of the

Blue Print This is a list of games for the Atari Video Computer System, a console renamed to the Atari 2600 in November 1982. Sears licensed the console and many games from Atari, Inc., selling them under different names. A few cartridges were Sears exclu ...

; Captain, R.O.T.C; and President, Emerson Chemical Society. Vaughan subsequently earned a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...

from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

in 1925.

Career

Vaughan returned to Georgia Tech and became an

assistant professor Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree A docto ...

, the second faculty member in that department (the first being Professor Arthur V. Henry). The Ceramic Engineering Department is a distant predecessor to Georgia Tech's modern School of Materials Science and Engineering in the Georgia Tech College of Engineering. In Spring 1935, Vaughan was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa.

Establishment of GTRI

In 1929, some Georgia Tech faculty members belonging to

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...

started a Research Club at Tech that met once a month. One of the monthly subjects, proposed by Vaughan, was a collection of issues related to Tech, such as library development, and the development of a state engineering station. This group investigated the forty existing engineering experiments at universities around the country, and the report was compiled by Harold Bunger, Montgomery Knight, and Vaughan in December 1929. Their report noted that several similar organizations had been opened across the country at other engineering schools and were successful in local

economic development In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and ...

. In 1933, S. V. Sanford, president of the University of Georgia, proposed that a "technical research activity" be established at Tech in order to boost the state's struggling economy in the midst of the Great Depression. President Marion L. Brittain and Dean William Vernon Skiles asked for and examined the Research Club's 1929 report, and moved to create such an organization. $5,000 in funds (equivalent to $ in ) were allocated directly from the

Georgia Board of Regents The Georgia Board of Regents oversees the University System of Georgia as part of the state government of Georgia in the United States. The University System of Georgia is composed of all state public institutions of higher education in the state. ...

and the station started operation on July 1, 1934.

Director of GTRI

Vaughan was selected as the acting director of the Engineering Experiment Station in April 1934, and hired 13 part-time faculty and a few graduate assistants. Vaughan was instrumental in securing GTRI's first permanent building, known then as the Research Building but later expanded and renamed the Thomas Hinman Research Building. Also in 1939, Vaughan became the director of the School of Ceramic Engineering, which raised his salary to $4,200 (equivalent to $ in ). He was the director of the station until 1940, when he accepted a higher-paying job as head of the Regional Products Research Division of the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolin ...

and was replaced at EES by Harold Bunger (the first chairman of Georgia Tech's chemical engineering department). The ceramics department was subsequently (but temporarily) discontinued due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and all of the current students found wartime employment. The department would be reincarnated after the war under the guidance of Lane Mitchell.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughan, W. Harry Year of death missing Georgia Tech alumni Georgia Tech faculty Georgia Tech Research Institute people 1900 births

Education

Career

Establishment of GTRI

Director of GTRI

See also

References