Richard C. Lord

Who was Richard C. Lord?

Professor Richard Collins Lord was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He received the Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 1936. He spent two years as a Fellow of the United States National Research Council, first at the University of Michigan and then at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

In 1942, Lord came to MIT when the National Defense Research Committee called him to serve as technical aide and later as deputy chief of the Committee's Optics Division. His war work was concerned with some of the early efforts on guided missiles as well as with military applications of infrared radiation. He received the President's Certificate of Merit in 1948 from Harry S. Truman for recognition of his work in his field during World War II.

In 1946, Massachusetts Institute of Technology appointed him Director of the Spectroscopy Laboratory and in 1954, Professor of Chemistry. In collaboration with Professors George R. Harrison, and J.R. Loofbourow, Lord published the widely used text "Practical Spectroscopy" in 1948. He also served as editor in the field of optics for the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology.