In 1990, when the Alumni Magazine listed Tech’s greatest inventors, Glen P. Robinson Jr., Phys 48, MS Phys 50, earned a prominent spot on the list. The article, titled “Dream Makers,” listed Robinson as having 35 patents in solar energy, antenna systems and energy management.
Robinson died Jan. 16 in Atlanta. He worked up until the day that he died, consulting business owners and tinkering with technology.
While a student, Robinson worked as a research engineer at the Engineering Experiment Station, which became the Georgia Tech Research Institute, and left school temporarily to serve in the Naval Signal Corps during World War II. After graduating, he worked as an associate physicist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Robinson went on to found Scientific-Atlanta in 1952 and served as its president until 1971. He also created the company E-Tech, which created a line of electric heat pumps that cut water-heating energy usage in half.
Robinson returned to his alma mater to serve as chairman of the Georgia Tech Research Corporation and as a trustee of the Georgia Tech Foundation. He received an honorary PhD in physics from the College of Sciences.
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