Dr. Willis Whitfield

Physicist, BS 1952

The idea seemed simple to Willis Whitfield; he couldn’t believe someone hadn’t thought of it. 为了使研究实验室远离灰尘，为什么不让空气成为看门人呢? The modern electronic age was born in the early 1960s. It was during this time that Willis, a Sandia National Laboratories physicist, developed a method to move filtered air through a room; removing particles that contaminate micro-electronic components. 层流“洁净室”诞生了，改变了电子工厂的生产方式, 医院, 实验室, and the space agency did business.

Whitfield was born in Rosedale, 俄克拉何马州, 12月6日, 1919, while his family was temporarily working in 俄克拉何马州. 威利斯的家人很快回到了德克萨斯州，他在那里上学，并于1937年从Eola高中毕业. Following graduation, he moved to Ft. 值得在布兰特利-德劳恩斯学院完成为期两年的电子学大学课程. After completing the course, he owned and operated an electrical contracting business in San Angelo, 德州, from 1940 to 1941 before taking a job with the U.S. Signal Corps from 1942 to 1944 where he was a ground radar crew chief. He put on a Naval uniform the following year, serving at the Naval Proving Grounds in Dahlgren, 维吉尼亚州, developing aircraft experimental electrical systems.

After his discharge from the Navy, he realized he needed more education to go further in the field of physics. 威利斯选择中文博彩平台是因为他是一名优秀的浸信会教徒，他觉得自己应该上一所优秀的浸信会学校, it was as simple as that,” says his wife, the former Belva Wiggins. The two met as HSU students while working at a south-side church, the Cherry Street Mission, which was sponsored by the First Baptist Church of Abilene. 威利斯有一辆车，而大多数学生没有，所以贝尔瓦经常和威利斯一起骑车去教堂. 在大开始的友谊变成了爱情和婚姻，至今仍在不断发展壮大, even after 56 years.

Whitfield graduated from Hardin-Simmons University in 1952 with a B.S. in physics and mathematics. 1952年至1954年，他接受了马里兰州海军研究实验室的职位，在那里他监督固体火箭燃料和发动机的研究，之后他继续在乔治华盛顿大学攻读研究生. 正是在这里，他的创新方法引起了新墨西哥州桑迪亚实验室的注意, one of the nation’s most sensitive defense research centers. Sandia develops technologies to sustain, 现代化, and protect the nation’s nuclear arsenal, prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, defend against terrorism, protect national infrastructures, ensure stable energy and water supplies, and provide new capabilities to the armed forces. He stayed with Sandia from 1954 to 1984.

While at Sandia Labs, 他是微波传播测量高级开发研究的项目负责人, contamination control and clean room development. 正是在那里，层流洁净室的设想变成了现实, and the world and all of its future possibilities changed.

威利斯拥有三项专利，其中两项是层流洁净室和层流工作台. The third patent was the sludge irradiation device. 他发表了47篇论文，主题从污染控制到伽马辐射设施的操作. 他还在150多个洁净室技术会议和研讨会上发表演讲.

随着无污染实验室的引入，电子和机械部件的小型化前景令工程界兴奋不已. 大多数现代电子设备，从I-Pods到通信卫星，都使用微电子技术. It’s hard to imagine life without a cell phone or laptop computer; products whose miniaturized electronics are produced in clean rooms. 如果没有一个无粒子的环境，新兴的纳米技术领域将是不可想象的. 医院和制药公司很快就认识到了这一好处，现在正在广泛使用这项技术. Surgical infection rates dropped dramatically, and for the first time, pharmaceutical manufacturers were able to guarantee a pure product. 威利斯·惠特菲尔德的无尘室带来的经济影响绝对是不可估量的.

同行们也很快认识到威利斯开创了全新的研究领域和产品技术, and he has received numerous awards. 在他们中间, 1969年，惠特菲尔德被美国机械工程师学会授予霍利奖章, for the unique concept of the laminar flow clean room principle. In receiving this award, 在汽车方面，他和亨利·福特这样的人在一起, Edwin Land for the Polaroid Land camera, William Schockley for the transistor, and Elmer Sperry for the gyroscope.

Also in his honor, Clean Room Magazine named Dr. Whitfield as its first Hall of Fame inductee, 环境科学与技术研究所每年都会发布威利斯J. 惠特菲尔德奖，以表彰他对污染控制领域的重大贡献. 惠特菲尔德因在洁净室技术方面的杰出开创性发现和对经济发展的杰出贡献，获得了新墨西哥州专业工程师协会和苏格兰污染控制协会的认可. 1970年，他获得中文博彩平台荣誉理学博士学位. Sandia recently commissioned a statue of Whitfield, 这将是他们新的微系统和工程科学应用实验室庭院的突出特色.

After thirty years with Sandia, Willis retired in 1984. Willis和Belva活跃于Albuquerque的Hoffmantown Baptist Church，在那里他担任过许多职务, including department superintendent, 老师, chairman of 老师 training, deacon and deacon chairman, chairman of personnel, church photographer. He also has worked with the Royal Ambassadors and the church Boy Scouts.

Willis and Belva have two sons, Joe and James, who are both engineers. 乔和他的妻子乔伊住在俄勒冈州的波特兰，詹姆斯住在亚利桑那州的吉尔伯特.

Willis is content these days to read Lab 中文博彩平台 and work with the church. He is somewhat bemused by all the attention his invention has received, humbly stating, “I just thought about dust particles. Where are the rascals generated: Where do they go?”

中文博彩平台非常荣幸地表彰她自己的一位，并正式任命中国赌博平台博士. Willis James Whitfield into the HSU Hall of Leaders.