John Elias Karlin (February 28, 1918 – January 28, 2013) was an industrial psychologist and a pioneer in

human factors engineering Ergonomics, also known as human factors or human factors engineering (HFE), is the application of psychological and physiological principles to the engineering and design of products, processes, and systems. Primary goals of human factors engi ...

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several lab ...

of AT&T. As the son of grocers, Karlin was born in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, South Africa. He studied at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

, earning a bachelor's degrees in music, philosophy, and psychology, and a master's in psychology. At the same time he was a violinist with the local symphony orchestra and string quartet. He later moved to the United States, earning a PhD from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

and studying electrical engineering at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Karlin conducted research on psychoacoustics for the United States military. He joined Bell Labs afterwards, becoming their first staff psychologist. He successfully argued for the foundation of its Human Factors Engineering Department in 1947, and was promoted to directorship of the unit in 1951. He undertook numerous empirical research projects, such as the usability of numerical input systems and the human capacity to recall digit sequences. The development of the modern telephone keypad is attributed to research in the 1950s in the department,B.L. Hanson, ''A Brief History of Applied Behavioral Science at Bell Laboratories'', Bell System Technical Journal 62(6) 1571–1590 (July–August 1983), p.1578 which was influential in many other applications. Around 1960, his research resulted in the transformation of the

telephone numbering plan A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, reach ...

in use in North America from the use of

telephone exchange names A telephone exchange name or central office name was a distinguishing and memorable name assigned to a telephone exchange, central office. It identified the switching system to which a telephone was connected, and facilitated the connection of te ...

to all-number calling (ANC) to provide essential expansion of the pool of available

telephone number A telephone number is the address of a Telecommunications, telecommunication endpoint, such as a telephone, in a telephone network, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN). A telephone number typically consists of a Number, sequ ...

s. Karlin was married twice, and had two children, one of whom predeceased him, and three stepchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karlin, John Elias 1918 births 2013 deaths University of Chicago alumni University of Cape Town alumni Scientists at Bell Labs South African emigrants to the United States