Harold Webb
 | This article, Harold Webb, has recently been created via the Articles for creation process. Please check to see if the reviewer has accidentally left this template after accepting the draft and take appropriate action as necessary.
Reviewer tools: Inform author |
Doctor Harold D. Webb (1909 – 1989) was a physicist and a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and one of the members of the Project Diana team that was the first to bounce radar signals off of earth's moon. Dr. Webb was one of the first two people to hear the echo of their radar beam as it bounced back from the moon, and was a major contributor to the success of the project. One of his daughters, Diana, was named after the Project.[1]
Early years
Harold Donivan Webb was born September 23, 1909, in Johnson County, Indiana, a son of Guilford and Bertha Owens Webb. He married Margaret Hougham on August 15, 1937, in Johnson County. Webb received his A. B. degree from Franklin College, Indiana in 1931, his A.M. degree in Physics from Indiana University in 1932, and his Ph.D. degree from Indiana in 1939.[1]
Project Diana
Following the War, Webb was a member of Project Diana, a Signal Corps project to investigate long range radar. Led by John H. DeWitt, Jr., this group consisted of a five-man team with Stodola as the chief scientist. During a test on January 10, 1946, this team became the first to bounce a radio signal off the moon and detect the resulting echo (Earth-Moon-Earth or EME).[2][3]}}
Project Diana functionally marked the birth of radar astronomy, which has been used to map other planets. It also set the stage for the space race in the United States. Since 1946, mapping of astronomical objects has been done with radar, with the basic technique of bouncing radio signals off of distant bodies still used to that was developed for the gather data about the geological and dynamic properties of many of the solar system’s planets. Additionally, the technique has been used to determine the scale of the solar system itself.[4]
After Project Diana
Webb received the Alumni Citation Award from Franklin College in 1961 and the Everitt Award for teaching excellence from the U. of I's College of Engineering in 1974.[5]
Personal Life
Webb and his wife had three daughters: Patricia, Sharon, and Diana, the latter named for the project for which Webb achieved his notoriety. Diana Webb is the co-author of the 2012 Handbook of Environmental Engineering Assessment.[6]
Death
Webb died on May 25th, 1989.[7] In June 2019, Webb was posthumously honored when he was inducted into the Camp Evans "Wall of Honor."
-
Harold Webb -
Harold Webb, second from left -
Harold Webb, in background facing camera
References
- ^ a b "Harold D. Webb Biography".
- ^ "Project Diana: To the Moon and Back".
- ^ "Diana Project 75th Anniversary Remarks" (PDF). CNN. January 10, 2021. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
- ^ "Project Diana Honored With an IEEE Milestone".
- ^ "Harold D. Webb Biography".
- ^ "Handbook of Environmental Engineering Assessment".
- ^ "Harold D. Webb Biography".
| This article, Harold Webb, has recently been created via the Articles for creation process. Please check to see if the reviewer has accidentally left this template after accepting the draft and take appropriate action as necessary.
Reviewer tools: Inform author |