Willard Boyle
| Willard S. Boyle | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
August 19, 1924 Amherst, Nova Scotia |
| Died | May 7, 2011 (aged 86) Wallace, Nova Scotia |
| Residence | Canada |
| Citizenship | Canada and United States |
| Fields | Applied physics |
| Institutions | Bell Labs |
| Alma mater |
McGill University Lower Canada College |
| Known for | Charge-coupled device |
| Notable awards |
Stuart Ballantine Medal (1973) IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award (1974) Draper Prize (2006) Nobel Prize in Physics (2009) |
Willard Sterling Boyle, CC (August 19, 1924 – May 7, 2011) was a Canadian physicist, pioneer in the field of laser technology and co-inventor of the charge-coupled device. On October 6, 2009, it was announced that he would share the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for "the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit—the CCD sensor, which has become an electronic eye in almost all areas of photography".
Born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, on August 19, 1924, Boyle was the son of a medical doctor and moved to Quebec with his father and mother Beatrice when he was three. He was home schooled by his mother until age fourteen, when he attended Montreal's Lower Canada College to complete his secondary education. Boyle attended McGill University, but his education was interrupted in 1943, when he joined the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II. He was loaned to the Royal Navy, where he was learning how to land Spitfires on aircraft carriers as the war ended. He gained a BSc (1947), MSc (1948) and PhD (1950) from McGill University.
After receiving his doctorate, Boyle spent one year at Canada's Radiation Lab and two years teaching physics at the Royal Military College of Canada. In 1953 Boyle joined Bell Labs where he invented the first continuously operating ruby laser with Don Nelson in 1962, and was named on the first patent for a semiconductor injection laser. He was made director of Space Science and Exploratory Studies at the Bell Labs subsidiary Bellcomm in 1962, providing support for the Apollo space program and helping to select lunar landing sites. He returned to Bell Labs in 1964, working on the development of integrated circuits.
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