HALL OF FAME / inventor profile

James Hillier
Born Aug 22 1915

Electron Lens Correction Device
Electron Microscope
Patent Number(s) 2,455,676

Inducted 1980


Physicist James Hillier is recognized for his contributions to the development of the electron microscope. Hillier's work on the electron microscope began in college. He and a fellow graduate student built a model in 1937 that magnified 7,000 times.

Invention Impact

A generation later more than 2,000 electron microscopes were in use in the laboratories of the world, some capable of magnifying 2 million times.

Inventor Bio

Born in Brantford in Ontario, Canada, he received his B.S. in 1937 and Ph.D. in physics in 1941 from the University of Toronto. Hillier was a research engineer at RCA Laboratories from 1940 to 1953, at which time he joined Melpar Inc. as research director. In 1954 he returned to RCA, where he became the general manager of RCA Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey in 1957. When he retired in 1978, Hillier was executive vice president and senior scientist of RCA Labs. Hillier holds 40 patents.

© 2002 National Inventors Hall of Fame