These papers have been indexed in the
Dr. Roger E. Clapp was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on October 9, 1919. He graduated from Harvard in 1941 (A.B. magna cum laude, with highest honors in physics), and also received his advanced degrees from Harvard (A.M. 1942, Ph.d. 1949). While at Harvard he held a National Scholarship, a Parker Fellowship, a Coffin Fellowship, and an AEC Predoctoral Fellowship.
He was a staff member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory during the wartime period, 1942 to 1946. He worked on microwave scanning linear array antennas for the Eagle airborne radar bombing system and for the GCA ground controlled approach aircraft landing system. He did pioneering work on the theoretical and experimental understanding of radar reflections from the terrain, and wrote sections on this subject in Radar System Engineering, volume 1 of MIT Radiation Laboratory Series. In addition, this work at the MIT Rad Lab led to ten patents and two Radiation Laboratory reports. Most of these patents describe microwave antenna inventions.
From 1946 to 1949 he was a doctoral student at Harvard, writing a thesis under Professor Julian Schwinger on "A Variational Solution of the Nuclear Three Body Problem." In 1949 and 1950 he held an AEC Postdoctoral Fellowship at MIT in theoretical physics. For part of 1951 he was a research associate at the MIT Laboratory for Nuclear Science and Engineering.
Dr. Clapp was a senior physicist at Snow & Schule, Inc., Cambridge, Mass., from 1950 to 1952, and a contractor, U.S. Office of Naval Research, from 1952 until 1954. During the period of 1954 to 1978 he was self employed as a consulting physicist. A principal client was Ultrasonic Corporation, renamed Advanced Industries, Inc., later renamed AirTechnology Corporation, Waltham, Mass. Other principal clients were Airborne Instruments Laboratory, at the time a division of Culter Hammer, Inc., and Carter's Ink Co. Additional consulting clients included RCA, Sylvania, Bell and Howell Communications Co., Meyer Associates, Guidance Systems, Inc., and Raytheon Company. He joined MITRE Corporation in 1978.
His consulting work was in many fields, including radar, electromagnetic emission and propagation, radiometric receiving techniques, antenna design, electrical discharge phenomena, and optical instrumentation. At the same time he devoted part of his time and attention to a personal program of long range research in gravitation and the elementary particle theory and in biophysics.
At MITRE he worked on many radar problems, in fields including multistatic radar and over the horizon backscatter radar; on error correcting coding; on multibeam antennas for microwaves; on low frequency antennas for communications; and on a foundation supported program in theoretical biology. He was project leader for a Mission-Oriented Investigation and Experimentation program on multibeam lens antennas which has led to two patents granted to the air force, and to a published paper chosen by the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society to receive the 1985 H.A. Wheeler Application Prize Paper Award.
Dr. Clapp was a member of the American Physical Society, the American Geophysical Union, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Phi Beta Kappa.
The papers of Roger Edge Clapp span his entire life, from 1919 to 1991, with the bulk of the collection between 1940 and 1991. The Biographical and Employment materials priarily document Clapp's work at the MIT Radiation Lab. Notebooks on gravitation, proposals, peer reviews, correspondence, and unpublished articles extensively document Clapp's research and theories.
Topics covered in the collection include gravitation, elementary particle theory, biophysics, cell wall molecular operation, nerve cell electrical communication, mobius theory of electron excitation, non-impact printing-electrophoresis, electron orbits, philosophy, and plant growth.
This collection is organized into three series:
Researchers must have an approved access application on file in order to access archival materials.
Gift of Linda Cabot Black, 1991.
James C. Maxwell in 1991 and Chip Calhoun 2010.
Box [number], Folder [number], Roger Edge Clapp Papers, 1942-1991. American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, College Park, MD 20740, USA.
This series primarily documents Clapp's work at the MIT Radiation Lab, and includes notes, correspondence, a diary, and instruments.
This series primarily documents Clapp's work at the MIT Radiation Lab, and includes notes, correspondence, a diary, and instruments.
This series primarily documents Clapp's work at the MIT Radiation Lab, and includes notes, correspondence, a diary, and instruments.