William O Baker, former advisor to president

MURRAY HILL, New Jersey – Former Bell Labs president William O Baker, who advised US presidents on intelligence gathering and oversaw researchers who won back-to-back Nobel Prizes, including for work underpinning the ‘Big Bang’ theory on the origin of the universe, has died at age 90.

Baker headed Bell Labs from 1973 to 1979, when its scientists won two Nobel Prizes in physics. In 1977, the lab’s Phillip W Anderson was a co-winner with two other scientists for theoretical research involving the electronic structure of magnetic systems, work that underlies many later technical developments in electronics.The following year, two Bell Lab scientists – Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson – shared the Nobel in physics for discovering faint background radiation in space believed to be left over from the ‘Big Bang’, a massive explosion of a superdense atom billions of years ago that most astronomers believe created the universe.Earlier in his career, Baker served as an advisor on science and foreign intelligence to presidents from Harry Truman to Gerald Ford, primarily on use of computers, satellite reconnaissance and other technology for intelligence gathering.- Nampa-APIn 1977, the lab’s Phillip W Anderson was a co-winner with two other scientists for theoretical research involving the electronic structure of magnetic systems, work that underlies many later technical developments in electronics.The following year, two Bell Lab scientists – Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson – shared the Nobel in physics for discovering faint background radiation in space believed to be left over from the ‘Big Bang’, a massive explosion of a superdense atom billions of years ago that most astronomers believe created the universe.Earlier in his career, Baker served as an advisor on science and foreign intelligence to presidents from Harry Truman to Gerald Ford, primarily on use of computers, satellite reconnaissance and other technology for intelligence gathering.- Nampa-AP