James E. Boyd was promoted to Assistant Director of Research at the station in 1954, and succeeded Calaway as the director on July 1, 1957. While at Georgia Tech, Boyd wrote an influential article about the role of research centers at institutes of technology, which argued that research should be integrated with education, and Boyd correspondingly involved undergraduates in his research. Boyd was known for recruiting faculty capable of both teaching and performing notable research; one such example is his recruitment of noted physicist and nuclear scientist Earl W. McDaniel.