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James Hillier H illier dedicated 16 years to the development of the electron microscope, of its applications and of related equipment that made it an even more useful scientific tool. In 1940, Hillier designed the first electron microscope that was offered commercially in North America for RCA. He was active in greatly expanding the range of useful applications of the instrument, particularly in biology and medicine. Today the instruments are used worldwide in every important laboratory, studying the fine structure of materials from viruses to genetics. All of Hillier's 41 inventions were made in RCA's New Jersey laboratories. He was a pioneer in fostering cooperation between industry and educational institutions and arranged collaborations with many institutions for dissemination of results obtained in New Jersey. These include Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research and Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory. Hillier, born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, later spent 20 years as head of the David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton during which he used his extensive experience as a successful inventor to guide the activities of the hundreds of inventors employed at the Center. During this period, the Center evolved several major inventions that spawned many familiar products such as liquid crystal displays, camera chips for video cameras, personal computer chips and amorphous silicon photo cells for solar energy. Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Washington and Akron in 1980, Hillier received an honorary doctorate from New Jersey Institute of Technology.