science · 15 January 2007 · 17 years ago
death
Died 15 Jan 2007 at age 91 (born 22 Aug 1915).
Canadian-American physicist who was a pioneering researcher for the electron microscope. With Albert Prebus, he built the first successful electron microscope in North America (1939-40) The 41 patents he held included innovations in electron diffraction, ultra-thin sectioning and bacteriological techniques. To image such materials as blood cells or bacteria without destroying them with the electron beam, Hillier and others developed methods of preparation using a colloid film to protect samples. He worked for RCA from 1940 for 37 years. He continued to improve the design, and marketed the electron microscope to research institutions worldwide. In 1958, he became the director of the company's research laboratories at Princeton. By the 1960s, when RCA ended its manufacture of electron microscopes, about 2,000 had been sold.
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