PIERCE, John R(obinson)

(1910-)

   US scientist and writer. As scientist he was a director of Bell Telephone Laboratories 1952-71, working intimately at the forefront of communications research and development; after 1971 he was professor of engineering at the California Institute of Technology, from which he had received his PhD in 1936. As writer, JRP published 14 nonfiction works, both specialized and popular, from Theory and Design of Electron Beams (1949; rev 1954) to Almost All about Waves (1974). As an sf writer he haspublished material under his own name, as John Roberts and as J.J. Coupling, beginning with "The Relics from the Earth" for Science WonderStories in 1930 under his own name. He remains best known as J.J. Coupling, contributing 1944-71 a number of nonfiction articles under that name to ASF.

   JC

   See also: IMMORTALITY.