Photo of Bernard Marshall Gordon

Bernard Marshall Gordon

  • National Medal of Technology and Innovation
  • Energy

Father of high-speed analog-to-digital conversion which has been applied to medical, analytical, computer and communications products; founder of two companies with over 2,000 employees and over $100 million in annual sales and creator of a new masters level institute located in Massachusetts to teach engineering leadership and project engineering to engineers.

Engineer, entrepreneur and philanthropist Bernard Marshall Gordon developed an interest in electronics at an early age. An expert in signal-processing technology, Gordon has received more than 200 patents for a range of devices in the fields of industrial instrumentation, medical imaging, computer systems, aerospace telemetry and communications. Many consider him the father of modern high-speed analog-to-digital conversion.

Gordon’s analog-to-digital converter has been applied to many medical, analytical, computer and communications products, but according to Gordon, it had a humble beginning. “The idea arose in my head, and there was no market. Arthur D. Little in 1955 did a market survey and advised a company not to buy into it because there was a market for only 10 A-to-D converters in the world,” Gordon shared in an interview. “There’s probably ten million a week minimum made today.”

Gordon developed important medical technologies such as an instant image CAT scanning machine, the world’s first solid-state X-Ray machine and a portable imaging system that assists stroke and trauma victims. His inventions have improved medical care and saved thousands of lives.

By Jen Santisi