Jay Last
| Jay T. Last | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 18, 1929 Butler, Pennsylvania |
| Nationality | USA |
| Alma mater |
University of Rochester (B.S., Optics, 1951) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D., Physics, 1956) |
| Occupation | physicist |
| Known for | semiconductor pioneer |
Jay T. Last (born October 18, 1929) is a physicist, silicon pioneer, and member of the so-called "traitorous eight" that founded Silicon Valley.
Last was born in Butler, Pennsylvania on October 18, 1929, at the beginning of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and grew up during the Great Depression. His father was of German extraction, and his mother Scotch-Irish. Both of them were teachers, but his father left teaching to work in a steel mill in hopes of earning a better living. During the depression, there was no work in the steel mills, but the family managed by growing and preserving its own food. During World War II, his father worked six to seven days a week, 12 hours a day, under demanding and dangerous physical conditions. Jay Last enjoyed hiking, walking and exploring while growing up. Between his junior and senior year of school, at age 16, he and a friend hitch-hiked to San José, California, and worked for the summer picking fruit.
A voracious reader, he tended to complete his school work well in advance of the rest of the class. He was encouraged by his chemistry teacher, Lucille Critchlow, who recommended him to work with Frank W. Preston, a local industrial chemist whose laboratory studied glass and glass fracture. Last began working at Preston's lab as a high-school student, and continued to work for him as a university student, whenever he had a break.
Last graduated from Butler Senior High School in 1947, and applied for a scholarship to study Optics at the University of Rochester. Last had heard about the program from his father, and didn't apply anywhere else. It was a rigorous program, and three-quarters of the entering class had dropped out by the time the program was finished. The program had close ties to Eastman Kodak and to Bausch & Lomb: Last's class in optical design was taught by Rudolph Kingslake of Kodak. Last worked for a summer at the trouble-shooting department of Kodak's optical instrumentation plant, before his senior year of university. He tested a camera, to be used in the B52 aircraft, at -60 °F temperatures. He earned his bachelor's degree in Optics from the University of Rochester in 1951. He had become increasingly interested in physics, and was encouraged by an advisor, Parker Givens, to become involved in the emerging area of solid-state physics.
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