George Elbert Kimball (July 12, 1906 – December 6, 1967) was an American professor of quantum chemistry, and a pioneer of operations research algorithms during World War II.
After a year when Kimball taught physics at Hunter College, he became assistant professor at the Chemistry Department of Columbia University.
[7] The book Quantum Chemistry written by Kimball, Henry Eyring and John Walter, was begun around 1934 and published in 1944.
In 1942, after the US had entered World War II and was faced with the problem of Nazi German U-boat attacks on transatlantic shipping, Philip M. Morse was tasked with organizing a scientific group in the US Navy to analyze anti-submarine warfare tactics.
The ORG's work also extended into the South Atlantic and into the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II, where the US Navy was carrying out a submarine offensive against Japan's supply lines and where defenses against Kamikaze attacks was high on the agenda.
Morse and Kimball wrote Methods of Operations Research, which was initially a classified report, but which was later released for general publication and published by MIT Press in 1951, and this book received a lot of attention.
[8] Kimball received the Presidential Citation of Merit for his work during World War II, and in 1954 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
He continued as a consultant to the Operations Evaluation Group, and when OR expanded into other services and countries he participated in the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group (WSEG), formed in 1949 to carry out OR work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the United States Secretary of Defense, as well in the organizing of the NATO Advisory Panel on Operations Research.
[10] During his last years, Kimball suffered from cardiac illness which became more severe, and he died on December 6, 1967, while in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on business.