Makoto Kuro-o grew up in Tokyo, the younger of two children. His father was an engineer, providing air conditioning systems for large structures like the Tokyo train stations. His mother went to college but did not work…

Enrique P. von Gersdorff was born in Brazil, the son of a German father and Brazilian mother who had met in Angola. His father worked for the United Nations, so he and his family moved several times from one country to…

John D. Altman was born and raised in Birmingham, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. He and his sister, two years younger, attended public schools, where, without parental prodding (or so he remembers), both were good…

This oral history with Gordon T. Moore and Jay T. Last focuses on the years 1956 and 1957, during which time Moore and Last worked at Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory and Fairchild Semiconductor was founded. This…

Matthew L. Meyerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the youngest of three children. His family moved several times before finally settling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when Matthew was seven. His parents were both…

This oral history is part of a series supported by the Center for Nanotechnology in Society (CNS), University of California, Santa Barbara, under the National Science Foundation Grant No. SES 0531184. Researchers using…

Robert Robson begins the interview with a discussion about growing up in South Dakota. He discusses his education, his involvement with the Army, and his early interest in electronics. He also details his move to…

Edwin R. Chapman grew up in Bellingham, Washington, the youngest of four children. His father taught drafting and shop in high school, and his mother stayed at home to raise the children. From an early age Chapman was…

Roy M. Long grew up in Lebanon, a small town near Hershey, Pennsylvania. His father worked at the Hershey factory, his mother in a department store. Because his father worked afternoons and evenings, Long spent most of…

Fenyong Liu was born and raised in Guangzhou, China during the Cultural Revolution. Early on in life he knew that he wanted to pursue science as his career, learning English during junior high school and having…

Rudolph Pariser's life has been significantly shaped by the historical events of the 20th century, from being born in China since his mother found refuge there during Russian Revolution while his father escaped from his…

Henry I. Smith begins the interview with a description of his childhood in New Jersey, his early aptitude in science, and his decision to pursue the sciences. After obtaining an undergraduate degree at Holy Cross…

Rebecca W. Heald grew up in Greenville, a small college town in western Pennsylvania, where she was the youngest of three daughters. Her father was a chemistry professor at Thiel College in Greenville, and her mother…

Bruce A. Hamilton was born in Palo Alto, California, where his father was a graduate student in engineering. His mother was at that time a housewife. Having finished his master's degree, the older Hamilton began work in…

Samuel L. Pfaff was born and raised in Rochester, Minnesota, a city of, at the time, fifty- to sixty thousand people composed, primarily, of physicians and other Mayo Clinic staff and engineers at International Business…

Mark W. Grinstaff was born in Texas, the elder of two sons. His father was in the United States Air Force, and the family moved a number of times during Grinstaff's childhood. He has lived in Japan and at least six…

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…

Kun Ping Lu was born in Pinghe County, a rural area of Fujian Province in southern China, one of six children. His father had been born into a poor farming family who adopted him out to a wealthy family who had one…

Dimitar B. Nikolov grew up in Sofia, Bulgaria, the only child of a mother who is still a chemist and a father who was an electrical engineer. His paternal grandparents lived with them and cared for Nikolov while his…

Roy G. Neville comments on his family and his childhood in Bournemouth, England during the start of World War II, while admitting that he was not very intrigued by his first chemistry lesson but enjoyed performing…

Leslie L. Vadasz begins the first interview by describing his childhood in Budapest during World War II. Vadasz developed an early interest in mathematics and literature, and began an undergraduate mechanical…

Christopher Rongo was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, as an only child. Although science always interested him, he did not always have the determination to be a scientist. His undergraduate work at the University of…

Reatha Clark King was born in Pavo, Georgia, the second of three daughters. Her father was a sharecropper who never learned to read or write, and her mother, who went to school only through third grade, worked as a…

James M. Goldey chronicles his involvement with the electronics industry and his career at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. He describes his interaction with William B. Shockley, Julius Molnar, Jack Moll, and Ian M.…

Harry Sello begins his oral history interview with a review of his childhood which included emigration from Russia. Sello became interested in chemistry and completed undergraduate work in organic chemistry before…