Biography of kin george edward alcorn

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Alcorn served as manager for advanced programs at NASA/GSFC from 1990 to 1992, and his primary duties concerned the managing of technology programs and evaluating technologies which were required by GSFC. In 1967 he earned his doctorate from Howard University in atomic and molecular physics.

After earning his Ph.D., Alcorn spent twelve years in industry.

He is perhaps best known for inventing an imaging x-ray spectrometer which uses the thermomigration of aluminum, an achievement which earned him the 1984 Inventor of the Year Award from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).

Alcorn has over 20 inventions. He received his degree with honors while earning eight letters in basketball and football.

His work on imaging x-ray spectrometers earned him the 1984 NASA/GSFC Inventor of the Year Award.

During this period he also served as deputy project manager for advanced development, and in this position he was responsible for developing new technologies required for the space station ‘Freedom’. He managed a shuttle flight experiment that involved Robot Operated Material Processing System, or ROMPs, in 1994.

The experiment involved the manufacture of materials in the microgravity of space.

In 1999 Alcorn was awarded Government Executive Magazine's prestigious--- Government Technology Leadership Award (there were only two awards in all of NASA's ten centers that year) for the development and commercialization of -- THE AIRBORNE LIDAR TOPOGRAPHICAL MAPPING SYSTEM (ALTMS ) .

He was involved with the computer analysis of launch trajectories and orbital mechanics for Rockwell missiles, including the Titan I and II, Saturn IV, and the Nova. Alcorn was celebrated as a Black Achiever in the Science and Technology category. A NASA grant supported Alcorn’s research on negative ion formation during the summers of 1965 and 1966.

This procedure is now used by many semiconductor manufacturing companies. He is a founder of Saturday Academy, which is a weekend honors program designed to supplement and extend math-science training for inner-city students in grades six to eight. During the summers of 1962 and 1963, George Alcorn worked as a research engineer for the Space Division of North America Rockwell.

In 1967 George Alcorn earned a Ph.D. He also managed the GSFC Evolution Program, concerned with ensuring that over its 30-year mission the space station develops properly while incorporating new capabilities.

Since 1992, Alcorn has served as chief of Goddard’s Office of Commercial Programs supervising programs for technology transfer, small business innovation research, and the commercial use of space programs.

Alcorn was honoured by his alma mater Howard University in 1994 in its Heritage of Greatness awards ceremony.

Alcorn was celebrated as a Black Achiever in the Science and Technology category. Some of these have been patented while others have been published. He managed a shuttle flight experiment that involved Robot Operated Material Processing System, or ROMPs, in 1994.

George Alcorn earned a Master of Science in Nuclear Physics in 1963 from Howard University, after nine months of study. He received a four-year academic scholarship to Occidental College in Los Angeles, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics.