Caltech Professor Wins $500,000 for Microelectronics Inventions
- Share via
SAN FRANCISCO — A microelectronics pioneer whose early work on minuscule transistors helped power the information age won the world’s single largest award for invention Thursday night.
Carver Mead, a professor of engineering and applied science at Caltech, was awarded the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT prize.
Mead’s innovations include a standard amplifying device used in microwave communication systems, which people use every day when making telephone calls or dialing into the Internet, and a hearing aid powered by a digital microchip.
Mead is best known for his work on transistors, a project that he began in 1968 on a suggestion from Gordon Moore of Integrated Electronics--later known as Intel.
“Moore’s Law”--that computer chips would continue to double in power while remaining the same size and price--has since become a truism in the computer industry.
Mead said he plans to use the prize money to help support firms launched by his former students.
Inside the business of entertainment
The Wide Shot brings you news, analysis and insights on everything from streaming wars to production — and what it all means for the future.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
