George W. Downs (1911November 8, 1964) was an American physicist and corporate officer. Downs was born in 1911 in Mt. Vernon, South Dakota, and studied at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

. In 1935, he was named chief engineer of the Lansing Manufacturing Company. In 1939, joined the William Miller Corporation, a scientific instruments developer in Pasadena, California. During World War II, Downs served for a time as a physicist in the University of California's War Research Division, before returning to Caltech in 1943 as a development engineer on rocketry and torpedo projects. In 1946, he helped organize the Applied Physics Corporation with Howard Cary, namesake of Cary Scientific Instruments. In 1963, Downs retired as the company's vice president, but continuing as a director until his death. later known as

Cary Instruments Cary Instruments was founded in 1946 by Howard Cary, George W. Downs and William C. Miller under the name Applied Physics Corporation. Howard Cary previously had been vice president in charge of development for National Technologies Laboratori ...

, a division of

Varian Medical Systems Varian Medical Systems is an American radiation oncology treatments and software maker based in Palo Alto, California. Their medical devices include linear accelerators (LINACs) and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with ...

. In 1948, he was named president of Research Instrument Corporation. Downs was a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, and a member of the Optical Society of American and the American Physical Society. Downs died November 8, 1964, in Pasadena, California. The Downs-Lauritsen Laboratory of Physics, on the campus of the

, is named after him.American Institute of Physics. "George W. Downs" (obituary) Physics Today, Jan 1965, p.155. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3047132 : 2021.

References

20th-century American businesspeople 1911 births 1964 deaths {{US-business-bio-1910s-stub