William O. Baker

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William Oliver Baker (born July 15, 1915 in Quaker Neck , Maryland ; † October 31, 2005 in Chatham , New Jersey ) was an American chemist and former chairman of the board of Bell Laboratories (now: Lucent Technologies) from 1973 to 1979, previously Board member from 1955 to 1973. Under his leadership, Bell Labs won several Nobel Prizes in physics . Baker himself was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1961 , and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1965. He received the Von Hippel Award in 1978 . The American Philosophical Society , of which he had been an elected member since 1963, awarded him their Benjamin Franklin Medal in 2000 .

Baker was an advisor to US Presidents Eisenhower , Kennedy , Johnson , Nixon and Reagan .

The William O. Baker Award for Initiatives in Research of the National Academy of Sciences is named after Baker .

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