Dennis Gabor

Dennis Gabor

(1900 – 1979)

Dennis Gabor was a Hungarian electrical engineer whose most notable 
accomplishment was the invention of holography.  After earning his 
university degrees in Berlin, Gabor fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and landed 
a job in the United Kingdom with the British Thomson-Houston Company. 
While much of his early work there focused on communication theory, he 
also developed a system of stereoscopic cinematography, and while 
attempting to improve the performance of the electron microscope in 1948 
he carried out the first basic experiments in holography, which he 
called "wavefront reconstruction."  Gabor later stated that he felt his 
work in this area was "20 years too early," since a practical 
demonstration of holography was not possible until the invention of the 
laser in the early 1960's.  In 1949 Gabor joined the Imperial College of 
Science & Technology in London, first as a Reader in Electronics, later 
as Professor of Applied Electron Physics.  While there, he led the 
development of imaging devices such as a holographic microscope and a 
flat, thin, [colour]color television tube.  Gabor eventually received patents on 
over 100 inventions.  In 1971 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics 
for his pioneering work in holography.