Sir Robert Watson-Watt

Sir Robert Watson-Watt (1892-1973), British physicist, best known for his major contributions to the development of radar. Robert Alexander Watson-Watt was born in Brechin, Scotland, and educated at the University of Saint Andrews. From 1915 to 1952 he did research for the British government in electromagnetic radiations, meteorology, and radio, and he investigated their application to aviation. In 1935, 16 years after obtaining the first patent for a radar instrument, Watson-Watt successfully demonstrated a new type of radio-locating device that could spot and count aircraft, by night and by day, at distances exceeding 161 km (100 mi). This led to the development at a critical time of the first practical system of radar that was used effectively against German aircraft in World War II.

Watson-Watt was knighted (1942) and received many other honors, including the U.S. Medal of Merit in 1946. His books include Through the Weather House (1935); an autobiography, The Pulse of Radar (1959); and Man's Means to His End (1961).