Thanks to an Associated Press (AP) story about the MIT Museum's ongoing exhibition of his photographs, the world is rediscovering the genius of Harold "Doc" Edgerton (1903-1991), who first came to MIT as a graduate student and remained for 60 years as professor.
"He revolutionized photography, helped the Allies win World War II, allowed Jacques Cousteau to see deep under the sea, and even hunted the Loch Ness monster," said the AP story, which was picked up by news outlets throughout the world, including CNN.com.
The article also touted the museum's other "more modern examples of innovation by scientists, designers, architects and historians" including the Kismet robot and the "Thinkapalooza" Metafield Maze, a virtual reality game in which participants use their bodies to direct the movement of an imaginary marble through a human-sized maze.
"Engineers and scientists sometimes chose projects that will get a lot of attention to science and technology that would otherwise be ignored," Deborah G. Douglas, curator of science and technology, told AP.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on February 16, 2005 (download PDF).
