In Memoriam George Clement Messenger, Jr.

George C. Messenger, Jr., was born on July 20, 1930, in Bellows Falls, VT, USA. He entered Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA, at age 16 with a scholarship that, combined with outside jobs, enabled him to graduate with a B.S. degree in physics. He went on to earn an M.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, and a Ph.D. degree in engineering from California Coast University, Santa Ana, CA, USA. He published more than 50 refereed technical papers, as well as a number of advances in semiconductor devices and IC hardening and seminal publications in the areas of displacement damage effects and single-event effects. George also was awarded a number of patents, and was a leader in the radiation effects community for more than six decades. He is known particularly for the Messenger–Spratt Equation, which describes the effects of neutron radiation on bipolar devices built using germanium and silicon. The seminal paper describing this work was published in 1958, while George was a member of the Research Division of Philco Corporation, four years before the first conferences on radiation effects in semiconductor devices were held. He then moved to the Applied Research Department of Northrop Corporation, and then Autonetics/Rockwell International Corporation. George then became a full-time consulting engineer, working with a number of defense contractors and automotive suppliers including Autonetics/Rockwell, Litton, and General Motors, as well as the U.S. Department of Defense.