African American Scientist to Receive National Medal of Technology Today

James E. West of John Hopkins University is scheduled to receive the National Medal of Technology from President George W. Bush in a White House ceremony Friday July 27th. James Edward Maceo West, 75, co-invented technology which is currently in use in approximately 90% of all microphones used in telephones and other devices around the world. West, together with colleague Gerhard Sessler received a patent for the Electroacoustic Transducer Electret Microphone in 1962 while working at the fabled Bell Laboratories for nearly 40 years.

Mad Professah received word of Professor West's prestigious award from one of West's many African American Ph.D. students. While West was at Bell Labs he was instrumental in the funding of the Summer Research Program and Cooperate Research Fellowship Program which supported many minority researchers (some estimate as many as 500) and eventual Ph.D.'s.

From the press release by John Hopkins University:

At Bell Labs in 1962, West and his colleague Gerhard Sessler patented the electret microphone, in which thin sheets of polymer film, metal-coated on one side, are given a permanent charge to serve as the membrane and bias of a condenser microphone that helps convert sound to electrical signals with high fidelity.

Almost 90 percent of the more then two billion microphones produced today are based on the principles developed by West and Sessler. West spent more than four decades with Bell Labs, building upon this research and obtaining more than 200 U.S. and foreign patents. He also authored or contributed to more than 140 technical papers.

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His achievements have led to numerous professional honors. In 1998, West was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. A year later, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Acoustical Society of America, and has served as president of the latter organization. He has received the Golden Torch Award of the National Society of Black Engineers and the Silver and Gold Medals in Engineering Acoustics from the Acoustical Society of America. In 1997, the New Jersey Institute of Technology awarded West an honorary doctor of science degree. In 2006 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Engineering from Michigan State University.

West was born in 1931 in Farmville, Va., and developed an interest in electronics at an early age. His parents were disappointed that he wished to study physics instead of medicine. “In those days in the South, the only professional jobs that seemed to be open to a black man were a teacher, a preacher, a doctor or a lawyer,” West said in a 2003 interview with the Johns Hopkins Gazette. “My father introduced me to three black men who had earned doctorates in chemistry and physics. The best jobs they could find were at the post office. My father said I was taking the long road toward working at the post office.”