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Hendrik Wade Bode, born 24 December 1905, in Madison, Wisconsin, was a distinguished and articulate scientist and engineer. Primarily known to modern engineering students for developing the asymptotic magnitude and phase plot that bears his name: Bode plot.
However his famous plots were just a small part of his great contribution to science as well as his country. Bode attended High School in Urbana Illinois and Normal School in Tempe Arizona. He received his B.A. Degree in 1924 and his M.A. Degree in 1926, both from Ohio State University.
Upon graduation he was promptly hired by Bell Labs where he began his carreer as designer of electronic filters and equalizers. Subsequently, in 1929, he was assigned to the Mathematical Research Group, where he distinguished himself in research pertaining to electronic networks theory and its application to long range communications. While at Bell Laboratories he attended Graduate School at Columbia University, where he successfully completed his Ph.D. in 1935. In 1938 he developed his famous asymptotic phase and magnitude plots. His work on Automatic (Feedback) Control Systems broke new ground with the concepts of Gain and Phase Margin the study of which was aided by his now famous Bode plots.
With the onset of World War II , Bode turned his Control Systems skills to the service of his country, by developing automatic anti-aircraft control systems, whereby radar information was used to provide data about the location of the enemy aircraft, that was then fed back to the anti-aircraft artillery servomechanisms, enabling automatic enemy aircraft ballistic tracking, in other words automatic shooting down of enemy aircraft, an early version of the modern Anti Ballistic Missile Defense. His work in servomechanisms during the war led to important contributions in the field of Control Systems and aided in the theoretical development of modern Robotics. ]
In 1944 he was placed in charge of the Mathematical Research Group at Bell Laboratories.
Bode's work on Electronic Communications, especially on filter and equalizer design continued during this time and in 1945 it culminated in the publication of his book Network Analysis and Feedback Amplifier Design, that is considered a classic in the field of Electronic Communications.
In recognition of his scientific contributions to the war effort, he received the Presidential Certificate of Merit in 1948.
As the war came to an end, his research focus shifted to include not only military but civilian research projects as well. On the military side he continued pursuing ballistic missile research and in the civilian domain he concentrated on modern communication theory. In 1952 he was promoted to the level of Director of Mathematical Research at Bell Labs, a position he held till 1958 when he was promoted again to become Vice President of Military Development and Systems Engineering.
Pursuing applied research was rewarding in itself but it also bore fruit in the form of numerous inventions in his name. He held a total of 25 patents in various areas of electrical and communications engineering, including signal amplifiers and artillery control systems. As well he was the prolific author of many research papers that were published in prestigious scientific and technical journals.
He retired from Bell Labs in October 1967, at the age of 61, after a distinguished 41 year carreer.
Retirement however seemed just like another carreer move because soon after he was elected to the academically prestigious Gordon McKay Professor of Systems Engineering position at Harvard University , an Ivy_league University.In his tenure there, he pursued research on military decision making algorithms and optimization techniques that are considered a precursor of modern fuzzy logic as well as studying the effect of technology on modern society.
He was the recipient of various Awards and Honours and he was a member or fellow in a number of scientific and engineering societies such as the IEEE, American Physical Society, Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics etc.
Hendrik Wade Bode died on 21 June, 1982 at his home in Cambridge, Mass. at the age of 76.