John G. (Jay) McKnight was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1931. He received his BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1952, and worked for Ampex Corp from 1952 thru 1972, serving in the magnetic recording research group, the stereo tape division, and the professional audio division. At Ampex, in addition to research he also worked on the design of the CinemaScope reproducer system; the Models 350, PR-10, and MR-70; improvements in the high-speed duplication system and operating procedures at the Ampex Music (Stereo Tape) Division; and developed the "Ampex Master Equalization" (AME). He has published over 60 technical papers on the theory and practice of magnetic recording, and on audio engineering (see the bibliography of these papers), and has received the Audio Engineering Society's Publication Award.

From 1972 to 1974 he was a consultant on audio systems and magnetic recording. In 1973/1974 he was a member of Judge Sirica's "Advisory Panel on White House Tapes", and in 1977 ...79 a member of the Committee on Evaluation of Sound Spectrograms of the National Academy of Sciences.

He is a co-founder of Magnetic Reference Laboratory (MRL) in Mountain View, California, where he was Engineering Vice-president from 1972 to 1975, and has been the president since 1975. He also develops new products and directs engineering at MRL.

Jay is a Fellow and an Honorary Member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES), was President of the Society the for the year 1978/1979, and received the AES Award; he is a member of the AES Journal Review Board; he has been a Governor three times, Chairman of the Standards Committee, Chairman of the Publications Policy Committee, and is now Chairman of the Historical Committee.

He has been a member of standards committees on audio engineering and magnetic recording of the AES, ANSI, CCIR, EIA, IEC, IEEE, NAB, RIAA, and SMPTE, and is presently a Vice-Chairman of the AES Standards Committee. He is also a senior member of the IEEE.

Jay and his wife Brigitte live in Cupertino, CA (95014). They have four adult sons, Ken, Jeff, Rick, and Mike.

His hobbies include hiking, knapsacking and 4-wheel driving; programming in the Forth computer language; and playing viola in amateur string quartets, in community orchestras, and in the orchestras of two Gilbert & Sullivan companies.

Contacts:
Magnetic Reference Laboratory
229 Polaris Ave, Ste 4
Mountain View, CA  94043

Tel  +1 650 965 8187
Fax +1 650 965 8548
email mrltapes@flash.net
webpage  http://www.flash.net/~mrltapes