Lifetime Contribution
Lawrence E. Tannas, Jr. ’59, MS ’61
Lawrence Tannas founded Tannas Electronic Displays, Inc., which in 1999 launched the industry to resize LCDs used in avionics and signage. Today he is partially retired after 60 years as a consultant and as a project-oriented engineer at several major aerospace corporations. At Honeywell, he developed the manual reentry guidance for Apollo. At Aerojet, he developed electroluminescent displays. At Autonetics, he pioneered the development of liquid crystal displays. Tannas also conducted pro bono studies for the U.S. Government and National Science Foundation. He also taught at UCLA Extension for 20 years. Tannas holds 40 patents, has edited two books, and authored more than 100 technical papers. He is active in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and The Society for Information Display as a president and fellow. He and his wife Carol have endowed two UCLA Engineering faculty chairs and provided for the alumni suite in Engineering VI. They have been married for 60 years and have three children and 10 grandchildren.