Dr. Coolidge (1873-1975) graduated MIT in electrical engineering in 1896 and earned his Ph.D. at the University of Leipzig in 1899.After serving in several academic positions at MIT, he joined the General Electric Research Laboratory in 1905, and remained in the employ of GE for rest of his career, becoming Director of the Research Laboratory in 1932 and GE Vice President and Director of Research in 1940. A General Electric biography provides a brief summary of his career.

In 1928 Dr. Coolidge was awarded the Edison Medal of the American Institure of Electrical Engineers "for his contributions to incadescent electric lighting and the x-ray arts." Today's incadescent light bulbs use filaments made of ductile tungsten using processes developed by Dr. Coolidge (Patent 1,082,933 granted in 1913). The Coolidge tube (Patent 1,203,495 granted 1916), used for medical and industrial x-ray sciences, was invented and developed in the GE Laboratory, with Dr. Coolidge receiving over three dozens related patents.

In 1975 at age 100, William David Coolidge was elected to the National Inventor's Hall of Fame.