William Shockley: The Nobel Prize Winner Who Pioneered Silicon Valley
William Shockley: The Nobel Prize Winner Who Pioneered Silicon Valley The name of William Shockley is synonymous with the development of Silicon Valley, and he is regarded by many to be the father of the modern transistor industry. Shockley was a physics professor, inventor and entrepreneur with a Nobel Prize that recognized his pioneering work in solid-state physics. Shockley’s inventive mind and spartan principles helped him to take semiconductor technology from being a niche research tool to a multibillion-dollar industry. Shockley was born in London to American parents but raised in Palo Alto, California. He studied physics at Stanford University, and after graduating in 1934 he had a brief teaching career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps and worked on radar counter measures. After the War, he returned to Stanford, accepting a teaching position in physics and continuing to pursue his research interests in tr...