Donald Bitzer, a significant figure in computer science and technology, passed away on December 10, 2024, at age 90 in Cary, North Carolina. Bitzer is most notably known as a co-inventor of the plasma screen display in 1964, which helped pave the way for modern flat-screen TVs.
In an era when computers filled entire rooms, Donald Bitzer embarked on a project that would revolutionize both education and display technology. While at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Bitzer was tasked with developing a computerized learning system. His response was PLATO (Program Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations), a groundbreaking networked teaching system that introduced features we take for granted today: online chat rooms, multiplayer gaming, and electronic newsletters.
But PLATO faced a significant hurdle. The cathode ray displays of the time were dim and lacked contrast, making them poorly suited for classroom use. Collaborating with fellow professor Gene Slottow and graduate student Robert Willson, Bitzer developed an innovative solution: the plasma display panel. The first version produced a distinctive orange glow, a familiar sight to early PLATO users.
It wasn’t until the late 1980s that color plasma displays emerged, through a joint effort between University of Illinois researchers and their Japanese colleagues. This development would ultimately pave the way for the flat-panel televisions that would become ubiquitous in homes worldwide.
Blitzer was recognized for his work having won an Emmy award in 2002, induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, induction into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame, and election to the National Academy of Engineering in 1974.
He was a distinguished professor at NC State University from 1989 onwards, where he was known for incorporating magic tricks into his lectures and working collaboratively with students and faculty. He remained actively engaged in problem-solving until his final days, never formally retiring.
