Joseph W. Motz

1918-present 

Joseph W. Motz received his B.S. in physics from the University of Wisconsin in 1941 and his M.S. from Cornell University in 1942. During the war, from 1942-43, he worked on electronic amplifiers for the U.S. Army Signal Corps Radar Laboratory. He earned his Ph.D. at Indiana University in 1949. His thesis was on the spectra of low-energy electrons emitted from radioactive atoms. Motz was hired at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST) in 1949. He was promoted to chief of the Radiological Physics Branch in 1965 and chief of the Applied Radiation Division in 1970. 

Notable honors and awards:

• Silver Medal, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1959

Other appointments: 

• Armour Research Foundation, 1943-46
• Founder, Rayex Corporation, 1988

Research interests: experimental investigations of elementary process of bremsstrahlung production; interaction of electrons and protons with matter in the energy range from 0.05 to 4 MeV; design of components and systems for X-ray inspection for medical and industrial applications