Alfred Lee Loomis (November 4, 1887-August 11, 1975) was an American lawyer, investment banker, physicist, philanthropist, and patron of scientific research. He established the Loomis Laboratory in Tuxedo Park, New York, and his discoveries in practical physics were considered instrumental in the Allied victory in World War II. November 4 is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 57 days remaining. ... 1887 is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar). ... August 11 is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... Investment banks assist corporations in raising funds in the public markets (both equity and debt), as well as provide strategic advisory services for mergers, acquisitions and other types of transactions. ... The word physicist should not be confused with physician, which means medical doctor. ... Tuxedo Park is a village located in Orange County, New York. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...

Born in New York City, New York, Loomis was the son of Henry Patterson Loomis and Julia Stimson. He did his undergraduate work at Yale University, graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1912, and worked in corporate law after graduation. City nickname: The Big Apple Location in the state of New York Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area  - Land  - Water 1,214. ... This article is about the institution of higher learning in the United States. ... Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. ... Corporations law or corporate law is the law concerning the creation and regulation of corporations. ...

In 1917, with the United States' entry into World War I, Loomis volunteered for military service. He was commissioned as a captain and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He worked in ballistics at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where he invented the "Aberdeen Chronograph", the first portable instrument able to measure muzzle velocity and striking power of bullets. At Aberdeen, he met and worked with Johns Hopkins physicist Robert W. Wood, under whose influence Loomis's longtime interest in inventing and gadgetry evolved into a serious pursuit of experimental and practical physics. Ballistics (gr. ... Aberdeen Proving Ground is a United States Army proving ground located in Harford County, Maryland. ... Robert Williams Wood (May 2, 1868 - August 11, 1955) was a physicist. ...

In the 1920s, Loomis collaborated with his brother-in-law Landon K. Thorne to take their firm, Bonbright and Company, from the verge of bankruptcy to becoming a preeminent U.S. investment banking-house specializing in public utilities. Loomis and Thorne pioneered the concept of the holding company, consolidating many of the electric companies on the East Coast. In the process, he became very wealthy. Just prior to the 1929 stock market crash, Loomis liquidated his holdings, thereby avoiding financial ruin. He proceeded to use his personal wealth to support scientific research over the ensuing two decades.

Loomis established the Tuxedo Park Loomis Laboratory, some thirty miles north of Manhattan, in what had been a summer resort for wealthy New Yorkers. Throughout the 1930s, prominent scientists lived on the grounds while collaborating on research, which in its early years focused on timekeeping and on electroencephalography. The facility was also visited by internationally prominent scientists, including Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Vannevar Bush, Enrico Fermi, and James Franck. 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Portrait of Albert Einstein taken by Yousuf Karsh on February 11, 1948 Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) was a German theoretical physicist who is widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. ... Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (October 7, 1885 – November 18, 1962) was a Danish physicist who made essential contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics. ... Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (December 5, 1901 – February 1, 1976) was a celebrated German physicist and Nobel laureate, one of the founders of quantum mechanics. ... Vannevar Bush (March 11, 1890–June 30, 1974) was an American engineer, inventor, and politician, known for his political role in the development of the atomic bomb, and idea of the memex —seen as a pioneering concept for the world wide web. ... Enrico Fermi (September 29, 1901 – November 28, 1954) was an Italian physicist most noted for his work on beta decay, the development of the first nuclear reactor, and for the development of quantum theory. ... James Franck (August 26, 1882 - May 21, 1964) was a German-born physicist and Nobel laureate. ...

In 1939, Loomis began a collaboration with Ernest Lawrence, and was instrumental in financing Lawrence's project to construct a 184- inch cyclotron. By this time, he had become a prominent figure in experimental physics, and had moved his Tuxedo Park operations to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he entered upon a joint operation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ernest Orlando Lawrence (August 8, 1901 - August 27, 1958) was an American physicist and Nobel laureate best known for his invention of the cyclotron. ... 60-inch cyclotron, circa 1939, showing beam of accelerated ions (perhaps protons or deuterons) escaping the accelerator and ionizing the surrounding air causing a blue glow. ... Harvard Square, May 2000 Cambridge is a city in the Greater Boston area in Massachusetts, United States. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, is a research institution and university located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts directly across the Charles River from Bostons Back Bay district. ...

Through much of his career as a scientist, Loomis was viewed with skepticism by academicians who considered him a businessman who dabbled in science. Scientists who worked personally with him however were convinced of his capability and industry. Due to his expertise and his demonstrated ability to raise funds for research, he was selected during World War II to chair the Microwave Committee of the National Defense Research Committee. Much of his work involved the problem of creating a light system for plane-carried radar. In these years he invented LORAN, the long-range navigation system whose offshoot LORAN C remains in widespread use. Loomis also made a significant contribution to the development of ground-controlled approach technology, a precursor of today's instrument-landing systems, which used radar to permit ground controllers to "talk-down" airplane pilots when poor visibility made visual landings difficult or impossible. In June of 1940, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) to coordinate, supervise, and conduct scientific research on the problems underlying the development, production, and use of mechanisms and devices of warfare. ... LORAN (LOng RAnge Navigation) is a terrestrial navigation system using low frequency radio transmitters. ...

President Roosevelt recognized the value of Loomis's work and described him as second perhaps only to Churchill as the civilian most responsible for the Allied victory in World War II.

He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1940, and received honorary degrees from Wesleyan University (D.Sc.,1932), Yale University (M.Sc 1933), and the University of California (LL.D 1941). The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in the United States is a government-established corporation supporting scientific research. ...

References

• Alfred Lee Loomis, Alvarez, Luis W. [in] National Academy of Sciences. Biographical memoirs. v.51 (1980). Washington D.C., National Academies Press, 1999 pp.308-341. http://books.nap.edu/books/0309028884/html/308.html
• Tuxedo Park, Jennet Conant. New York, Simon & Schuster, c2002. ISBN 0-684-87287-0