Olson, Harry Ferdinand

Olson, Harry Ferdinand

(1902–82) radio engineer, inventor; born in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. He joined RCA laboratories in 1928 and developed the unidirectional microphone. In the late 1940s he established the standards for high-fidelity sound reproduction and in 1955 he developed the first electronic music synthesizer. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his contributions to music in 1971.