Editing Atlanta (section)

===Metropolitan area's growth===
Atlanta played a vital role in the Allied effort during [[World War II]] due to the city's war-related manufacturing companies, railroad network and military bases. The defense industries attracted thousands of new residents and generated revenues, resulting in rapid population and economic growth. In the 1950s, the city's newly constructed highway system, supported by federal subsidies, allowed middle class Atlantans the ability to relocate to the suburbs. As a result, the city began to make up an ever-smaller proportion of the metropolitan area's population.<ref name=NGEAtlanta/> [[Georgia Tech]]'s president [[Blake R. Van Leer]] played an important role with a goal of making Atlanta the "[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]] of the South."<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40581436 | title=Engineering the New South: Georgia Tech, 1885–1985 | journal=The Georgia Historical Quarterly | jstor=40581436 | access-date=November 29, 2020| last1=Hair | first1=William I. | year=1985 | volume=69 | issue=4 | pages=509–517 }}</ref> In 1946 Georgia Tech secured about $240,000 ({{Inflation|US|240000|1946|r=-4|fmt=eq|cursign=$}}) annually in sponsored research and purchased an [[electron microscope]] for $13,000  ({{Inflation|US|13000|1946|r=-4|fmt=eq|cursign=$}}), the first such instrument in the [[Southeastern United States]] and one of few in the United States at the time.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/26051|title=New Microscope For Experiment Installed at Tech|work=[[The Technique]]|date=January 19, 1946|access-date=January 26, 2010}}</ref> The Research Building was expanded, and a $300,000 ({{Inflation|US|300000|1947|r=-6|fmt=eq|cursign=$}}) [[Westinghouse Electric (1886)|Westinghouse]] [[Network analyzer (AC power)|A-C network calculator]] was given to Georgia Tech by [[Georgia Power]] in 1947.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://history.gtri.gatech.edu/our-history/ees-installs-%E2%80%9Celectro-mechanical-brain%E2%80%9D|title=EES Installs "Electro-Mechanical Brain"|publisher=[[Georgia Tech Research Institute]]|access-date=May 28, 2021}}</ref> In 1953, Van Leer assisted with helping Lockheed establish a [[research and development]] and production line in Marietta. Later in 1955 he helped set up a committee to assist with establishing a nuclear research facility, which would later become the [[Neely Nuclear Research Center]]. Van Leer also co-founded [[Southern Polytechnic State University]] now absorbed by and made part of [[Kennesaw State University]] to help meet the need for technicians after the war.<ref>W. L. Hughes, "A Brief Chronology of the Technical Institute Movement in America." The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), 1947.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/TimLenoir/SiliconValley99/ScientificAtlanta.pdf |work=Stanford|title=The Case of Scientific Atlanta|author=Richard S Combes|date=February 26, 1999}}</ref> Van Leer was instrumental in making the school and Atlanta the first major research center in the [[Southern United States|American South]]. The building that houses Tech's school of [[Electrical and Computer Engineering]] bears his name.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ece.gatech.edu/about/ece-buildings|title=Campus Map: Van Leer Building|access-date=May 20, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/30/sports/how-to-get-to-bowl-games-and-then-win-them.html |work=[[The New York Times]]|title=Bobby Dodd Interview|author=Bobby Dodd|date=December 30, 1984}}</ref>