GEORGE ZOBRIST (Jan 1951)

When the NASA rocket scientists at Kennedy Space Center needed their computer systems evaluated and a better way to store data from the Space Station, they called Dr. George Zobrist (January ’51).
It was the same story when the people at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, where the atomic bomb was developed during WWII, needed help with their supercomputers.
Dr. Zobrist joined the Air Force after graduating from Roosevelt High School and became a bombsight mechanic. This experience, plus university courses he took while in service, allowed him to complete his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Missouri three years after his discharge from the Air Force.
After completing his Master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, he held faculty positions at the University of Missouri and the University of South Florida, before becoming chairman of the E.E. department at the University of Miami.
After a year of research at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and some time in the private sector, he returned to academia at the University of Missouri-Rolla, where he became chairman of the Computer Science Department, from which he eventually retired as Professor Emeritus.
Besides his previously mentioned work with NASA and Oak Ridge, Dr. Zobrist consulted with the Boeing, IBM, and Bendix corporations, the U.S. Defense Communications Agency, and the Prestolite Corporation, where he evaluated D.C. motors for the development of electrical vehicles.
In his wide and varied experience as a consultant to industry and government, and in his most distinguished career in higher education, Dr. George Zobrist has advanced the knowledge, training, and accomplishments that continue to make America a leader in world technology and security.