Clayton Bates

Clayton Wilson Bates, Jr., (September 5, 1932 – February 18, 2024) was an American physicist and electrical engineer. Bates developed an x-ray image intensifier tube for use in diagnostic radiology and was an early researcher in optical and electronic properties of nanophase metal-semiconductor composite systems.

Between 1950 and 1954, Bates attended Manhattan College and graduated with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He then went on to earn his first master's degree in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now New York University Tandon School of Engineering). To full his degree at the Polytechnic Institute, he published a thesis titled "Transistor Wide-Band Amplifiers" in June 1956. He subsequently completed a second master's degree in electrical engineering from Harvard University, where he earned a fellowship.

Career Bates began his professional career in the private sector, working for companies including Varian Associates, Avco, Sylvania Electric Products, the Ford Instrument Company, and RCA. One of the projects he worked on was designing the nuclear reactor controls of the first SEA WOLF, the second atomic powered submarine.

In 1972, Bates joined the faculty at Stanford University as an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Materials Science. He is currently emeritus faculty in Stanford's Engineering Department. In 1978, he was an associate member of the Stanford/NASA Joint Institute for Surface and Microstructural Research.

In 1984, Bates became professor of material sciences and engineering and was appointed associate dean for graduate education and research at Howard University. At Howard, he established the first interdisciplinary graduate program in materials science and engineering at a historically Black college or university. He was also a member of the American Physical Society's Committee on Minorities, along with James Gates.

Bates holds patents spanning from 1986-2012, including an infrared external photoemissive detector.

Bates died on February 18, 2024 in Palo Alto, California, at the age of 91.

Research At Stanford University, Bates conducted research on the "optical and electronic properties of photoelectronically active surfaces leading to a fundamental understanding of the relationship between the microstructure and properties of the first such surface to be used in practical systems, the S-l photocathode, which had been discovered in 1927."

Select publications

Double Magnetic Resonance of Coupled Spins, Journal of Applied Physics 38, 2586 (1967) Effect of pH on the production of chalcopyrite CuInSe2 prepared by spray pyrolysis, Applied Physics Letters 43, 851 (1983), with Masakaza Uekita, Kim F. Nelson, and Cammy R. Abernathy

Personal life Clayton Bates was married to Priscilla Bates, and they had three children.