Winston E. Kock

Winston Edward Kock (December 5, 1909 – November 25, 1982) was an American electrical engineer and musician, who was the first Director of NASA Electronics Research Center (NASA ERC) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from September 1, 1964, to October 1, 1966. The center was created for multidisciplinary scientific research, its proximity to certain colleges, its proximity to a local U.S. Air Force research facility, and was perceived as part of the nation's cold War effort.

Kock was also a novelist under the pseudonym Wayne Kirk. Kock also wrote books about topics in engineering and acoustics. These included radar, sonar, holography, and lasers. Kock's seminal research in artificial dielectrics, carried out at AT&T Bell Laboratories in the 1940s, is a historical connection to metamaterials.

Early life and education Winston Edward Kock was born on December 5, 1909 in Cincinnati, Ohio. At age four Kock started learning piano, and by high school he could play full recitals. In college he began composing music. He then took electrical engineering courses at the University of Cincinnati and continued studying piano and organ at the College of Music of Cincinnati. In the 1930s, as partial fulfillment of his bachelor's degree, he built an electronic organ. He used the more economical neon glow tubes for his electronic organ After obtaining his doctorate, he became a teaching fellow at University of Cincinnati for a year, and was briefly affiliated with Institute for Advanced Study and Indian Institute of Science.

Before becoming Director of NASA Electronics Research Center he was vice-president research of the Bendix Corporation in Detroit. After leaving the Director's position, he returned to Bendix as vice-president and chief scientist. He continued at NASA as a member of the Administration Committee. Oscillation Generator: Patent number: 2400309; Filing date: Oct 31, 1941; Issue date: May 14, 1946 Electrical musical instrument: Patent number: 2328282; Filing date: Apr 23, 1941; Issue date: Aug 31, 1943 Metallic structure for delaying unpolarized waves: Patent number: 2577619; Filing date: May 16, 1947; Issue date: Dec 4, 1951. Two-way television over telephone Lines. Patent number: 2895005; Filing date: Sep 30, 1954; Issue date: Jul 14, 1959.

Books Examination of the model of Electronics Research Center's first phase of construction. From left to right: Albert J. Kelley, Edward Durell Stone, and Winston E. Kock Kock wrote several books including Sound Waves and Light Waves (1965), Lasers and Holography (1981), Seeing Sound (1972), Radar, Sonar and Holography (1974), and The Creative Engineer: the art of inventing (1978).

He also authored Applications of Holography (Proceedings of United States-Japan Seminar on Information Processing by Holography, held in Washington, D.C., October 13–18, 1969).

Published research At the Fortieth Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (November 9, 10, and 11, 1950) Kock, along with a colleague, contributed research results pertaining to "a photographic method using mechanical scanning for displaying the space patterns of sound and microwaves..." :

Below is a list of some of Kock's published research: