George G . Macfarlane George G . Macfarlane ( January 8 , 1916 - May 20 , 2007 ) was an engineer , scientific administrator and public servant . He made major contributions to research on radar during World War II and received a special appointment as Superintendent , for theoretical work , within the Physics Division of the Telecommunications Research Establishment ( TRE ) during the post war years , continuing in this capacity when it was renamed the Royal Radar Establishment ( RRE ) . He was appointed Deputy Director of the National Physical Laboratory in 1960 , returned to RRE as Director in 1962 and was selected to be the first Controller of Research in the Ministry of Technology in 1967 , responsible for the coordination of government laboratories with a total staff of 23 , 000 . In 1970 he was transferred to the Ministry of Defence , which had 20 research and development establishments . He consolidated these to just six , and was knighted in 1971 . After retiring from this post in 1975 , he continued several major professional activities . Early years . George Macfarlane was born in Airdrie , Lanarkshire , and attended the Airdrie Academy . He entered the University of Glasgow in 1933 , graduating in 1937 , then went to the Dresden University of Technology , receiving a doctorate in July 1939 , and leaving a month before the outbreak of war . Wartime research . Soon after the war started , Macfarlane joined the government laboratory that was developing radar and had moved to a site near Swanage in Dorset . The laboratory went through several name changes , and is best known during that period as the Telecommunications Research Establishment ( TRE ) . He applied his strong mathematical skills to the electromagnetic theory of radio wave propagation and reflection , that was the basis of the defensive use of airborne radar in detecting and tracking hostile bombers . He participated in work on the counter measures against radar carried by enemy bombers to locate their targets , and then on work to make the radar carried by British bombers more effective . Shortly before the end of the war , he was attached to an intelligence unit with the advancing allied forces , to collect information on German radar . Postwar research . Developments in rocketry , that could propel missiles , and the discovery of semiconductors that were sensitive to infra red radiation led defence scientists and policy makers to focus on the development of heat seeking missiles . Under the direction of R . A . Smith , TRE became a major center for theoretical and experimental research on semiconductor physics . Macfarlane was given an individual merit post as Superintendent for theoretical work in the Physics Division . This included the applications of electromagnetic theory to antenna design and to the behaviour of magnetrons , of non - linear mathematics to guidance systems , of information theory to the filtration of radar signals , and of quantum mechanics to the electronic behaviour of crystalline solids . TRE merged with the Radar Research and Development Establishment ( RRDE ) to form the Radar Research Establishment ( RRE ) in 1953 , renamed Royal Radar Establishment ( also abbreviated RRE ) in 1957 . Macfarlane continued as Superintendent of Theoretical Physics throughout the reorganizations . The move to Administration . In 1960 , Macfarlane became Deputy Director of the National Physical Laboratory . This has a key role in providing standards for scientific measurements and performing numerical calculations . On his return to RRE as Director , two years later , he reorganized the technical departments into : Military and Civil Systems ( comprising Ground Radar and Air Traffic Control , Guided Weapons and Airborne Radar groups ) , Physics and Electronics ( comprising Physics and Electronic Groups ) and Engineering . At this time , " despite the policy shift away from fighters . . . to guided weapons for UK air defence , . . . RRE continued to argue for strike aircraft and kept up the necessary radar research programs . " In 1967 , when Tony Benn was Minister of Technology , the post of Controller of Research was created in his ministry , and Macfarlane was appointed . Three years later , in 1970 , he moved to the Ministry of Defence , planned and carried out a major restructuring and consolidation of its research activities , and was knighted . The years of Retirement . Macfarlane retired officially in 1975 , but continued to provide professional expertize in the public interest . He served on the committee that had been set up to plan the future of the telecommunications industry ( the Carter Committee ) and then on the Boards of the ( British ) Post Office and , later , British Telecom , advising on the use of digital communication and fibre optics . He also served on the National Enterprise Board , the Board of Trustees of the Imperial War Museum , the Council of the Fellowship of Engineering . He was elected Deputy President of the Institute of Electrical Engineers but declined the Presidency because the organization would not accept a physics degree as the qualification for membership , despite the extent to which physics and electronic engineering overlapped . In these activities , as in his earlier administrative roles , he was a unifier – of laboratories , of disciplines , and of industry , government and education . He was survived by his wife of 66 years , née Barbara Grant Thomson , and a son and a daughter .