While studying at the University of Toronto, Hillier constructed, with his colleague A. Prebus, an electron microscope like the one made by Ruska. The new one, however, built in 1937, was much improved and produced resolutions usable in a lab. Hillier also discovered the principle of the Stigmator for correcting astigmatism of electron microscope objective lenses, invented the electron microprobe microanalyser, and was the first to picture tobacco mosaic viruses and an ultra-thin section of single bacterium.
BA, U. Toronto, 1937; MA, 1938; PhD, U. Toronto, 1941 Head of Electron Microscope Research, RCA Labs, Camden & Princeton, NJ 1940-53; Co-author: Electron Optics & the Electron Microscope, 1945. Inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame, 1980; recipient of James Loudon gold medal, U. Toronto, 1937; Albert Lasker award APHA, 1960; Commonwealth award, 1980, and many others. Achievements include 41 patents in field. Became American citizen in 1945.
Sources: Who's Who in America, 1994; Asimov's Biographical Encyc. of Sci. and Tech.
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