Editing Ivan Getting (section)

{{short description|American physicist and engineer}}
{{Refimprove|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Ivan Getting
| birth_name    = Ivan Alexander Getting
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1912|01|18}}
| birth_place   = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|2003|10|11|1912|01|18}}
| death_place   = [[Coronado, California]]
| occupation    = Physicist, Electrical Engineer
| known_for     = [[Global Positioning System]]
}}

'''Ivan Alexander Getting''' (January 18, 1912 &ndash; October 11, 2003) was an American [[physicist]] and [[electrical engineer]], credited (along with [[Roger L. Easton]] and [[Bradford Parkinson]]) with the development of the [[Global Positioning System]] (GPS). He was the co-leader (the other being [[Louis Ridenour]]) of the research group which developed the [[SCR-584]], an automatic microwave tracking fire-control system, which enabled [[M9 Gun Director]] directed [[anti-aircraft gun]]s to destroy a significant percentage of the German [[V-1 flying bomb]]s launched against [[London]] late in the [[Second World War]].<!--A figure of 95% of all V-1s fired is quoted on a website, but the figures don't match any of the detailed statistics available. On the last day on which many V-1s were fired, 104 were fired and 68 shot down by artillery. Much fewer were shot down in the early days. See New Scientist quotation-->

Getting was born on January 18, 1912 in [[New York City]] to a family of [[Slovaks|Slovak]] immigrants from [[Bytča]], [[Slovakia]] and grew up in [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]].  He attended the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) as an Edison Scholar ([[Scientiæ Baccalaureus|S.B.]] Physics, 1933); and [[Merton College, Oxford]] as a Graduate [[Rhodes Scholarship|Rhodes Scholar]] (D.Phil., 1935) in [[astrophysics]].<ref name="MCreg">{{cite book|editor1-last=Levens|editor1-first=R.G.C.|title=Merton College Register 1900-1964|date=1964|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|pages=244–245}}</ref> 
 
He worked at [[Harvard University]] on nuclear instrumentation and cosmic rays (Junior Fellow, 1935–1940) and the [[MIT Radiation Laboratory]] (1940-1950; Director of the Division on Fire Control and Army Radar, Associate Professor 1945; Professor 1946). During the Second World War he was a special consultant to Secretary of War [[Henry L. Stimson]] on the Army's use of [[radar]]. He also served as head of the Naval Fire Control Section of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, member of the Combined Chiefs of Staff Committee on Searchlight and Fire Control, and head of the Radar Panel of the Research and Development Board of the Department of Defense.

In 1950, during the [[Korean War]], Getting became Assistant for Development Planning, Deputy Chief of Staff, United States Air Force; and in 1951, Vice President for Engineering and Research at the [[Raytheon Corporation]] (1951-1960).<ref name=MCreg /> While at Raytheon, Getting also served on the Undersea Warfare Committee of the [[United States National Research Council|National Research Council]].

In 1960, he was founding President of [[The Aerospace Corporation]] (1960-1977).<ref name=MCreg /> The corporation was established at the request of the Secretary of the Air Force as a non-profit organization to apply "the full resources of modern science and technology to the problem of achieving those continued advances in ballistic missiles and space systems, which are basic to national security." Getting was a founding member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Group (later renamed the Scientific Advisory Board) and chair of its Electronics Panel.  Getting retired from The Aerospace Corporation in 1977.

In 1978, he served as President of the [[Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Ivan_Getting |title=Ivan Getting |work=IEEE Global History Network |publisher=IEEE |access-date=10 August 2011}}</ref> He also served on the board of directors of the [[Northrop Corporation]] and the Board of Trustees of the [[Environmental Research Institute of Michigan]].