Calculators. cell phones. iPods. Computer flat screens. Any device that requires a screen would be almost impossible without the development of liquid crystal display (LCD) technology. And LCD development would have been almost impossible without George Heilmeier, who led the team at RCA’s David Sarnoff Research Center that developed the technology in the mid-1960s.

Heilmeier was born, raised and educated in Philadelphia, graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in electrical engineering in 1958. He then earned his MSE in solid-state electronics and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton.

Soon after graduation, Heilmeier joined RCA Labs. In the period 1963-1970, he discovered four new electro-optic effects in liquid crystals and demonstrated their use in display applications that included alpha numeric displays for instruments, electronic clocks, TV-like static picture displays, electronically controlled window transparency and optical shutters. But LCD use in flat panel TVs was deemed years away awaiting advances in integrated circuits for addressing, so Heilmeier and his team concentrated on more immediate commercial smaller screen applications. Even though Heilmeier’s DSM technology was later improved and replaced by later developments, Heilmeier is credited with the major contributions that led to LCD’s commercial use. In fact, several engineers who worked under Heilmeier left RCA and formed Optel in 1970, which produced the first commercial LCD watches.

In 1966, Heilmeier was named Sarnoff’s head of solid-state device research and, four years later, was chosen as a White House fellow. As a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense, Heilmeier worked on long-range R&D and technology assessment. A year later, he was named Assistant Director of Defense Research and Engineering in charge of all Defense Department electronics, computer technology and physical sciences programs. In early1975, he became Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Over his six-year tenure in the Department of Defense, Heilmeier was awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, the highest civilian award given by the department, on two separate occasions.

Heilmeier left the federal government to become a vice president at Texas Instruments (TI) in late 1977. In 1983, he was named TI’s senior vice president and chief technical officer. In 1991, he became president and CEO at Bellcore, a research and engineering consortium owned by the regional bell companies, and later was named chairman. In 1997, he became chairman emeritus of the company, which had changed its name to Telcordia.

Over the course of his career Heilmeier earned 15 patents and received numerous awards including the National Medal of Science presented by President Bush in 1991. In 1993, he received the Industrial Research Institute Medal for outstanding accomplishment in leadership of industrial research and was named the first “Technology Leader of the Year” by Industry Week magazine. In 1997, he received the IEEE Medal of Honor, “for discovery and initial development of electro-optic effects in liquid crystals." More recently, old Alumni Hall, the primary engineering department lecture hall at his alma mater, Penn, was renamed Heilmeier Hall in his honor. In November 2005, Heilmeier was honored for his LCD innovations with a Kyoto Prize, Japan’s version of the Nobel Prize.