Julius Adams Stratton (May 18, 1901 – June 22, 1994)[4] was an American electrical engineer, physicist, and university administrator known for his contributions in applied electromagnetism. He attended the University of Washington for one year, where he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity, then transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), from which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1923 and a master's degree in 1926 both in electrical engineering. He then followed graduate studies in Europe and the Technische Hochschule of Zürich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland, awarded him the degree of Doctor of Science in 1928.[5]
Stratton was appointed Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering Department at MIT after his PhD. In 1930 his appointment was transferred to the Physics Department. He was promoted to Professor in 1941. He was one of the first staff members of the MIT Radiation Laboratory who joined the Laboratory in 1940.[6]
He published the classic book Electromagnetic Theory as part of the McGraw Hill series in Pure and Applied Physics in 1941. Stratton's book was one of the most influential electromagnetic textbooks which had formed an integral part of the graduate electromagnetic educations of both physics and electrical engineering communities since its publication.[7]John David Jackson described Stratton's book as his bible[8] and said that he used Stratton's book to learn advanced electromagnetism.[9] Stratton's book also described by Julian Schwinger as one of the essential electromagnetic textbooks.[10] In 2007 Stratton's book had been reissued by the IEEE as one of its classic reissues in the collection of The IEEE Press Series on Electromagnetic Wave Theory.[11] Stratton's book was one of the most requested classic electromagnetic textbook for reissuing in electrical engineering community. According to Donald G. Dudley then series editor of The IEEE Press Series on Electromagnetic Wave Theory, over twelve years before reissued publication of textbook in 2007, he had received many requests worldwide to reissue Stratton's book.[7]
In 1967, Stratton was seconded to chair a Congressionally established "Commission on Marine Sciences, Engineering and Resources" whose work culminated in a report, "Our Nation and the Sea", published in 1969, that had a major influence on ocean sciences and management in the United States and abroad. The commission itself became commonly referred to as the Stratton Commission.
Stratton collected his speeches in a 1966 book titled Science and the Educated Man: Selected Speeches of Julius A. Stratton (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1966), with a foreword by the historian of technology Elting E. Morison who had been on the faculty of MIT as a professor of humanities in the Sloan School of Industrial Management from 1946 to 1966.[16]
MIT's Julius Adams Stratton Student Center at 84 Massachusetts Avenue is named in his honor.
——; Chu, L. J. (1941). "Steady-State Solutions of Electromagnetic Field Problems. I. Forced Oscillations of a Cylindrical Conductor". Journal of Applied Physics. 12 (3): 230–235. Bibcode:1941JAP....12..230S. doi:10.1063/1.1712899.
——; Chu, L. J. (1941). "Steady-State Solutions of Electromagnetic Field Problems. II. Forced Oscillations of a Conducting Sphere". Journal of Applied Physics. 12 (3): 236–240. Bibcode:1941JAP....12..236S. doi:10.1063/1.1712900.
Johnson, Howard W. (March 1996). "Julius Adams Stratton (18 May 1901-22 June 1994)". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 140 (1): 116–121. JSTOR987282.
