CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Nobel laureate and University of Illinois alumnus Jack S. Kilby will be honored at a campus celebration that will include a free public symposium on Wednesday, April 18.
The symposium will be from 2-5 p.m. in the auditorium of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, 405 N. Mathews Ave., Urbana.
“The Integrated Circuit: 1958-2008” will feature Kilby and leaders from the semiconductor industry discussing the impact that the integrated circuit has had on society and technology.
Kilby will give the keynote address, “Turning Potential into Realities: The Invention of the Integrated Circuit.” Other speakers include Robert Doering of Texas Instruments, Robert Dennard of IBM, Walt Davis of Motorola and Joe Beyers of Hewlett-Packard. A panel discussion and question-and-answer session will follow.
Kilby received the 2000 Nobel Prize in physics for his part in the invention and development of the integrated circuit, which he first demonstrated on Sept. 12, 1958, while at Texas Instruments (TI). Integrated circuits, or microchips, are now pervasive in such things as computers, space probes and electronic watches.
Kilby earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the UI in 1947. He began his career with Centralab, a Milwaukee-based electronics manufacturer, where he was responsible for the design and product engineering work on hearing-aid amplifiers.
In 1958, he joined TI in Dallas. During the summer of that year, working with borrowed and improvised equipment, he built the first electronic circuit in which all of the components were fabricated in a single piece of semiconductor material half the size of a paper clip.
Kilby went on to pioneer military and commercial applications of microchip technology. He also co-invented the hand-held calculator and the thermal printer that was used in portable data terminals.
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