1923-

American Electrical Engineer

Jack St. Clair Kilby shares credit with the late Robert Noyce (1927-1990) as inventor of the integrated circuit, or microchip, which has been called the most influential invention of the twentieth century. Certainly it can be considered the most important invention of the century's second half, as the automobile was to the first. The world of computers, cellular phones, fax machines, satellite television, and many other fixtures of modern life could not exist without this tiny instrument, first created by Kilby and shortly afterward improved by Noyce.

Kilby was born on November 8, 1923, in Jefferson City, Missouri. He grew up in Kansas, where his father, an engineer, helped install that state's power grid. In 1947, he earned a B.S.E.E. degree from the University of Illinois, and went on to acquire an M.S.E.E. at the...