Carver A. Mead

Carver A. Mead begins with a review of his family history and his childhood near a power plant in Kernville, California. He discusses his early interest in electronics, which included getting his ham radio license and working for local radio stations during high school. Mead studied electrical engineering at the California Institute of Technology and was invited to teach during graduate school, where he took up solid state electronics. In 1959 Gordon Moore contacted Mead, beginning an informal technical exchange while Moore was at Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel Corporation. Mead conducted transistor research, and also pioneered automated design methodologies for VLSI devices. While consulting with Intel Corporation, Mead came to know its internal business culture and management style as well as the economics of the silicon manufacture. Mead discusses his long history of entrepreneurial activity, which continues to the present day.

California Institute of Technology

1955 - 1958 Teaching Assistant, Department of Electrical Engineering

Pacific Semiconductors, Inc.

1956 - 1960 Consultant

California Institute of Technology

1958 - 1959 Lecturer, Department of Electrical Engineering

California Institute of Technology

1959 - 1962 Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering

Fairchild Semiconductor

1960 - 1968 Consultant

California Institute of Technology

1962 - 1967 Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering

California Institute of Technology

1967 - 1977 Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering

Intel Corporation

1968 - Present Consultant

California Institute of Technology

1977 - 1980 Professor, Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

California Institute of Technology

1980 - 1992 Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Computing Science

Synaptics, Inc.

1986 - Present Director, Cofounder

California Institute of Technology

1992 - 1999 Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science

Foveon, Inc.

1997 - Present

Chairman, Co-Founder

California Institute of Technology

1999 - Present Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science Emeritus

Impinj, Inc.

2000 - Present

Director, Co-Founder

David C. Brock

David C. Brock is a senior research fellow with the Center for Contemporary History and Policy at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. As a historian of science and technology, he specializes in the history of semiconductor science, technology, and industry; the history of instrumentation; and oral history. Brock has studied the philosophy, sociology, and history of science at Brown University, the University of Edinburgh, and Princeton University.

In the policy arena Brock recently published Patterning the World: The Rise of Chemically Amplified Photoresists, a white-paper case study for the Center’s Studies in Materials Innovation. With Hyungsub Choi he is preparing an analysis of semiconductor technology roadmapping, having presented preliminary results at the 2009 meeting of the Industry Studies Association.

Arnold Thackray

Arnold Thackray founded the Chemical Heritage Foundation and served the organization as president for 25 years. He is currently CHF’s chancellor. Thackray received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history of science from Cambridge University. He has held appointments at Cambridge, Oxford University, and Harvard University, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In 1983 Thackray received the Dexter Award from the American Chemical Society for outstanding contributions to the history of chemistry. He served for more than a quarter century on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the founding chairman of the Department of History and Sociology of Science and is currently the Joseph Priestley Professor Emeritus.