Ohio native Willard Harrison Bennett (1903 - 1987) was the Burlington Professor of Physics at North Carolina State University from 1961 to 1976. He researched in the areas of plasma physics, astrophysics, geophysics, surface physics, and physical chemistry. Bennett held nearly 70 United States and foreign patents, including the radio frequency mass spectrometer, which he invented in 1955.

Bennett graduated cum laude from Ohio State University in 1924, recieved his master's degree in physical chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 1926, and completed a Ph.D. in physics at Ohio State in 1928. He held several jobs before coming to North Carolina State University, including teaching at Ohio State (1930 - 1938), being the director of research at the Electronic Research Corporation (1938 - 1941), seeing active duty during WWII (1941 - 1946), eventually becoming a lieutenant colonel, and being the branch head and division consultant at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (1951 - 1961).