William Webster Hansen, (1909-1949), Ameican physicist who was one of the founders of the technology of microwave electronics. Here he is seen with a section of his first linear election accelerator, which operated at Stanford University, California, in 1947. It was eventually 3.6 meters long and could accelerate electrons to an energy of 6 MeV. He died at age 39 of a lung disease caused by inhaling the beryllium used in his research.