John G. Anderson

Biography

John G. Anderson was born on August 21, 1922 in Dante, Virginia. He received the B.S. degree (Honors) in Electrical Engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Immediately following graduation Mr. Anderson entered World War II, where he served as a Radar and Communications Officer in the 5th and 13th Air Forces in the Pacific.

In 1946, Mr. Anderson joined General Electric and one of his early assignments was to conduct lightning research on the Empire State Building ln New York City, making oscillographic measurements of stroke currents striking the building and conducting high speed photography of the stroke processes. This work significantly helped in the development of lightning protection of transmission lines and substations.

During his long career at General Electric, and later at Power 'Technologies, Inc., Mr. Anderson's work led to an understanding of numerous aspects of lightning protection for both transmission and distribution lines. He participated in a number of high voltage engineering developments, including special methods of corona detection in electrical apparatus, the early application of ultrasonic detection and location of lightning impulse corona and failures in transformers, research into the mechanisms of dielectric failure of oil-solid insulating structures, the development of nanosecond geometrical models to determine the lightning response of transmission towers, the development of special electronic equipment to measure lightning transients on transmission lines, the first Monte Carlo computer computations of line lightning performance, the development and application of linetype surge arresters on transmission lines, leadership in research into the electrical characteristics of ehv and uhv transmission lines up to 1500 kV, and the development of special computer programs to compute line lightning performance for transmission and distribution systems.

Mr. Anderson was a Life Fellow of the IEEE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He was a recipient of the 1984 IEEE Centennial Medal, the IEEE Herman Halperin Electric Transmission and Distribution Award (for contributions to transmission engineering), the IEEE Medal for Engineering Excellence in 1997 and two prize paper awards. In addition to holding a number of positions in the IEEE Power Engineering Society, he served for a time as the U.S. Representative to CIGRE Working Group 33-04 (Insulator Pollution). He also served as one of the U.S. representatives to the U.S.-U.S.S.R.Joint Technology Exchange on High Voltage Transmission. Mr. Anderson was the author or co-author of over 50 peer-reviewed technical papers and three books. He has been granted eight patents and was listed in Who's Who in America. A registered professional engineer in Massachusetts, he was active as a private consulting engineer.

He and his wife, Avery Anderson, resided in Dalton, Massachusetts. They had three children. His outside interests included applications of computer technologies, long-distance backpacking and canoeing.