Zworykin, Vladimir Kosma

Zworykin, Vladimir Kosma (1889-1982), Russian-born American physicist and electronic engineer, known for his developmental work in television. Zworykin was born in Murom, Russia, and educated at the Institute of Technology in St Petersburg, the Collège de France, and, after his emigration to the United States in 1919, at the University of Pittsburgh. He became an American citizen in 1924. In 1929 he became director of the Electronic Research Laboratory of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) at Princeton, New Jersey. Important contributions were made by Zworykin to both the transmission and the reception of television. He was largely responsible for the development, during the 1920s and 1930s, of the television camera and picture tube. He also directed the group that in 1939 successfully produced a powerful electron microscope (see Microscope: Electron Microscope).