On the recordMarch 9, 2010
I am very pleased today to be honoring the two Nobel Prize-winning physicists on their remarkable achievement. Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, of Bell Labs, were recipients of the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics, along with Dr. Charles K. Kao. Drs. Boyle and Smith won the prize for their invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit, the charge-coupled device, or CCD. If this sounds familiar, it may be because it is the device that makes digital cameras work. The digital camera is already ubiquitous in consumer usage, but people may not realize the device also has been instrumental to scientific endeavors as well. The field of astronomy was revolutionized by the integration of these devices into telescopes to capture details of the cosmos in even greater detail. CCDs have also greatly aided our ability to look inward at the tiniest particles with their adaptation into microscopes. Today, we also honor Bell Laboratories of Murray Hill, New Jersey. Bell Labs is a renowned research organization whose name is synonymous with innovation. In addition to CCDs, work at Bell Labs has led to the development of the transistor, photovoltaic cells, the laser, and the UNIX operating system. For all of these accomplishments, a total of seven Nobel Prizes for physics have been awarded for the work done at Bell Labs.
