Zoltán Lajos Bay | |
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| Born | (1900-07-24)July 24, 1900 Gyulavári, Hungary |
| Died | October 4, 1992(1992-10-04) (aged 92) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Citizenship | Hungarian American |
| Occupations | Physicist, inventor |
| Known for | Electron multiplier,radar astronomy, the new definition of ameter (metre) |
| Righteous Among the Nations |
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Zoltán Lajos Bay (July 24, 1900 – October 4, 1992)[1] was a Hungarian physicist, professor, and engineer who developed technologies, includingtungsten lamps andmicrowave devices. He was the leader of the second group to observeradar echoes from the Moon (Moonbounce). From 1930, he worked at theUniversity of Szeged as a professor oftheoretical physics.
In 1923 atTungsram Ltd., a research laboratory was established for improving light sources, mainly electric bulbs.[1] The head of that laboratory wasIgnác Pfeifer, whose research staff included Bay, along withTivadar Millner,Imre Bródy,György Szigeti,Ernő Winter, and many others.[1]
György Szigeti worked together with Bay on metal-vapor lamps and fluorescent light sources. They received a U.S. patent on "Electroluminescent light sources" which were made of silicon carbide; these light sources were the ancestors oflight-emitting diodes (LEDs).[1]
In 1955, Bay became head of the Department of Nuclear Physics in the National Bureau of Standards (NBS, called todayNIST), where he measured the velocity and frequency of light by a previously unknown measurement method.[2][failed verification] As a result of Bay's research, the 1983 conference of the International Weights and Measures Bureau accepted, as a standard, the definition of ameter (metre)[3] as recommended by Bay.
In 1998, the State of Israel recognized him as among theRighteous Among the Nations and listed his name atYad Vashem as rescuer number 6497.[4][5]A relative with the same name invented Bay radial speaker:BayZ
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