Biography of Marvin Camras

On June 23, 1995 the distinguished IIT alumnus, researcher, and educator, Marvin Camras passed away after a prolonged illness.


Dr. Camras Receiving the National Medal of Technology from President Bush in 1990. Dr. Camras Receiving the National  Medal of Technology from President Bush in 1990.

Dr. Camras, born in 1916, was a pioneer in the field of magnetic recording. Beginning in the 1930s with a wire-based system and then switching to magnetic coatings on paper tapes and disks, Dr. Camras invented and developed such technologies as multi-track tape recording, stereophonic sound reproduction, magnetic sound for motion pictures, videotape recorders, as well as the technique of high-frequency bias recording; together these innovations presently contribute to a $30 billion industry. For this and related work Dr. Camras collected more than 500 patents and was named a Fellow of the IEEE and AAAS as well as other professional societies. Topping a long list of professional honors, he was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame in 1985 and awarded the National Medal of Technology by President George Bush in 1990.

Camras' career began in the late 1930s when, as a student at the Armour Institute (later to become Illinois Institute of Technology) he built a wire recorder to capture his cousin's singing. While other recording equipment existed at the time, he had devised a new type recording head. Dr. Camras reported that when he demonstrated the wire recorder for some professors, "they said they never heard anything that had this quality." His professors urged him to join the Armour Research Foundation (which later became IIT Research Institute) in order to develop his invention. After earning his B.S. from the Armour Institute in 1940, he began work with the Armour Research Foundation. He completed his M.S. from the Armour Institute in 1942 and was awarded an honorary doctorate from IIT in 1968. His work with the Armour Research Foundation/IIT Research Institute continued through 1987. He continued to teach electrical engineering at IIT until 1994.

Further information on Marvin Camras is available at the Paul V. Galvin Library at IIT (35 W. 33rd St., Chicago, IL 60616), which houses an extensive archive of Dr. Camras' papers, including copies of his patents and prototypes of various inventions. Also available through the archives is a transcript of an oral history interview with him, conducted in 1991 by Mark Clark. His life charts the day-to-day activities of a privately-funded research institution which was a forerunner to today's research parks. As the inventor of such a fundamental technology, Dr. Camras had contacts ranging from the military to Hollywood and throughout industry. A study of his career promises to illuminate themes of general interest to technological historians, including the nature of inventive creativity and the position of an independent inventor in the 20th century. Bona fide researchers may request access to these materials by calling 312.567.3374. You may also wish to contact Illinois Institute of Technology's Office of Public Relations (312.567.3109) or the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering (312.567.3400).