Benjamin Lax, Engineer, Mechanical Engineer ’41,

Benjamin Lax, ME’41, was an educator and physicist.

He graduated from The Cooper Union on June 6 1940 and Cooper Union President Gano Dunn presided over the graduation Ceremony.  Benjamin was one of 18 students who were awarded a 300 dollar scholarship for further study during the graduation ceremony (link to story in The New York Times)93982027

After studying at Cooper Union, he worked as a radar operator during World War II.  After the war,  he earned a doctorate in physics at M.I.T., where he later worked as associate director of the Lincoln Laboratory and, from 1960 to 1981, was director of the Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory.

In 1960, Lax was awarded the Oliver E. Buckley Solid State Physics Prize. His research on the fields of cyclotron resonance in semiconductors, magneto-optic properties of solids, and the electromagnetic behavior of ferrites have led to a new understanding of the basic electrical structure of solids.

Benjamin Lax is a Fellow of American Physical Society and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was associate editor of Microwave Journal, Physical Review, and of The Journal of Applied Physics. In 1962 he co-authored the book “Microwave Ferrites and Ferrimagnetics.”

Benjamin Lax served on the Board of Directors of Barnes Engineering Company beginning in 1978.

Professional Awards and Recognitions:

Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize from the American Physical Society in 1960

 Guggenheim Fellowship in 1981

Benjamin Lax received the 1964 Cooper Union President’s Citation and the 1969 Gano Dunn Award.

He was inducted into The Cooper Union Hall of Fame in 2009.