12 Facts About John Madey

John Madey is best known for his development of the free-electron laser at Stanford University in the 1970s.

In 1956, when John Madey was 13 and Jules was 16, they began relaying communications from the south pole to families and friends in the United States.

John Madey received a BS degree in Physics and a MS degree in Quantum Electronics from the California Institute of Technology in 1964 and 1965.

John Madey continued thinking about the stimulated emission question while working on his doctoral degree at Stanford, when he invented the free-electron laser.

John Madey was awarded a PhD in 1970, and appointed as Professor of Electrical Engineering in 1986.

Stanford University refused to patent this idea so John Madey filed for a patent on his own.

An opportunity arose for John Madey to leave Stanford, taking a tenured position at the Physics Department of Duke University, which John Madey accepted in 1988, moving his FEL research laboratory with him in 1989.

At Duke, John Madey served for almost a decade as director of the FEL lab.

Duke contends that, despite his scientific prowess, John Madey had ineffectively managed the lab, resulting in a negative external review of the science and management in his lab.

John Madey contends that Duke sought to use the lab's equipment for research areas outside the allocated scope of certain government funding, and that when he objected, Duke sought to remove him as lab director.

John Madey then sued Duke for patent infringement of his two patents, and brought a variety of other claims.

John Madey was awarded the Stuart Ballantine Medal from The Franklin Institute in 1989.