9. Ellis A. Johnson

When World WarII (WWII) began, the U.S. was able to call on scientists from many disciplines to apply their expertise to a wide range of military combat problems. A key contributor was the physicist Ellis A. Johnson. In the early days of the war, he and his Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL) embryonic Operations Research (OR) staff made seminal contributions to the design and utilization of mines, including degaussing procedures and mine-laying patterns. Later, as a naval officer, Ellis coordinated the Army Air Force’s major mine-laying operation of the Inland Sea between Japan and the Asian mainland—Operation Starvation—a spectacularly successful campaign that was conceived, planned, and directed by the use of OR techniques. For his wartime contributions, Ellis receiving The Navy’s Distinguished Civilian Citation and the Army’s Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, and Legion of Merit awards from both the Navy and the Air Force.