Shockley, William B.

Shockley, William B.

▪ American physicist
in full  William Bradford Shockley  
born Feb. 13, 1910, London, Eng.
died Aug. 12, 1989, Palo Alto, Calif., U.S.
 American engineer and teacher, cowinner (with John Bardeen (Bardeen, John) and Walter H. Brattain (Brattain, Walter H.)) of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956 for their development of the transistor, a device that largely replaced the bulkier and less-efficient vacuum tube and ushered in the age of microminiature electronics.

      Shockley studied physics at the California Institute of Technology (B.S., 1932) and at Harvard University (Ph.D., 1936). He joined the technical staff of the Bell Telephone Laboratories (Bell Laboratories) in 1936 and there began experiments with semiconductors that ultimately led to the invention and development of the transistor. During World War II, he served as director of research for the Antisubmarine Warfare Operations Research Group of the U.S. Navy.

      After the war, Shockley returned to Bell Telephone as director of its research program on solid-state physics. Working with Bardeen and Brattain, he resumed his attempts to use semiconductors as amplifiers and controllers of electronic signals. The three men invented the point-contact transistor in 1947 and a more effective device, the junction transistor, in 1948. Shockley was deputy director of the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group of the Department of Defense in 1954–55. He joined Beckman Instruments, Inc., to establish the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in 1955. In 1958 he became lecturer at Stanford University, California, and in 1963 he became the first Poniatoff professor of engineering science there (emeritus, 1974). He wrote Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors (1950).

      During the late 1960s Shockley became a figure of some controversy because of his widely debated views on the intellectual differences between races. He held that standardized intelligence (intelligence, human) tests reflect a genetic factor in intellectual capacity and that tests for IQ (intelligence quotient) reveal that blacks are inferior to whites. He further concluded that the higher rate of reproduction among blacks had a retrogressive effect on evolution.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Shockley , William Bradford — (1910–1989) British–American physicist Shockley, born the son of a mining engineer in London, was educated at the California Institute of Technology and at Harvard, where he obtained his PhD in 1936. He started work at the Bell Telephone… …   Scientists

  • Shockley, William B(radford) — (13 feb. 1910, Londres, Inglaterra–12 ago. 1989, Palo Alto, Cal., EE.UU.). Ingeniero y profesor estadounidense. Recibió su Ph.D. en la Universidad de Harvard. Ingresó a Laboratorios Bell en 1936, donde inició experimentos que lo condujeron a… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Shockley, William B(radford) — born Feb. 13, 1910, London, Eng. died Aug. 12, 1989, Palo Alto, Calif., U.S. U.S. engineer and teacher. He received a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He joined Bell Labs in 1936, where he began experiments that led to the development of the… …   Universalium

  • Shockley,William Bradford — Shock·ley (shŏkʹlē), William Bradford. 1910 1989. British born American physicist. He shared a 1956 Nobel Prize for the development of the electronic transistor. * * * …   Universalium

  • Shockley, William B. — ► (1910 89) Físico británico. Fue premio Nobel de Física en 1956, compartido con J. Bardeen y W. H. Brattain, por el descubrimiento y perfeccionamiento del transistor …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Shockley — Shockley, William B …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • William Bradford Shockley — William B. Shockley William Bradford Shockley (* 13. Februar 1910 in London; † 12. August 1989 in Stanford) war ein US amerikanischer Physiker und Nobelpreisträger. Inhaltsverzeichnis …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • William Bradford Shockley — William Shockley William Shockley William Shockley Naissance 13 février 1910 Londres (Angleterre) Décès 12  …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Shockley — William Bradford …   Scientists

  • Shockley — (William Bradford) (1910 1989) physicien américain. Sa participation à l invention du transistor lui valut le P. Nobel 1956 …   Encyclopédie Universelle

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