Forrest S. Mozer (born February 13, 1929 in Lincoln, Nebraska) is an American
experimental physicist
Experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines in the field of physics that are concerned with the observation of physical phenomena and experiments. Methods vary from discipline to discipline, from simple experiments and o ...
, inventor, and entrepreneur known best for his pioneering work on
electric field
An electric field (sometimes E-field) is the physical field that surrounds electrically charged particles and exerts force on all other charged particles in the field, either attracting or repelling them. It also refers to the physical field fo ...
measurements in
space plasma
The interplanetary medium (IPM) or interplanetary space consists of the mass and energy which fills the Solar System, and through which all the larger Solar System bodies, such as planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets, move. The IPM sto ...
and for development of
solid state electronic
speech synthesizers
Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system converts normal languag ...
and
speech recognizer
Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers with the mai ...
s.
Scientific research
He received his
B.S.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
in physics from
University of Nebraska
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...
in 1951, and both his
M.S.
A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...
and
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in physics from
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
(Caltech) in 1956. After graduation he worked as a nuclear researcher at Caltech, then continued his research at
Lockheed Missiles and Space Co., at
Aerospace Corporation
The Aerospace Corporation is an American nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in El Segundo, California. The corporation provides technical guidance and advice on all aspects of space mi ...
, and at the
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science
Basic research, also called pure research o ...
in Paris. Around 1963 his interest shifted to high energy particles in the
aurora
An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...
. In 1966 he joined the physics department of the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, where he became full professor in 1970. He has held appointments as Vice Chairman of the Physics Department and Associate Director of the
Space Sciences Laboratory
The Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) is an Organized Research Unit (ORU) of the University of California, Berkeley. Founded in 1959, the laboratory is located in the Berkeley Hills above the university campus. It has developed and continues t ...
. His recent research continues 40 years of rocket and satellite measurements.
Mozer has more than 300 scientific publications, and he has received numerous honors and recognition for his scientific work:
* Awarded
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
(1962)
* UC Berkeley Academic Senate Distinguished teaching award, 1977.
*
Hannes Alfvén
Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén (; 30 May 1908 – 2 April 1995) was a Swedish electrical engineer, plasma physicist and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). He described the class of MHD waves now ...
Medal, awarded by the
European Geosciences Union
The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is a non-profit international union in the fields of Earth, planetary, and space sciences whose vision is to "realise a sustainable and just future for humanity and for the planet." The organisation has headq ...
, 2004.
* Fellow,
American Geophysical Union
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's act ...
* Fellow,
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...
(1977)
*John Adam Fleming Medal, American Geophysical Union (2018)
Inventor and entrepreneur
Mozer invented and patented the first
integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...
speech synthesizer in 1974. He first licensed this technology to
TeleSensory Systems
Telesensory Systems, Inc. (TSI) (later'' TeleSensory Corporation'') was an American corporation that invented, designed, manufactured, and distributed technological aids for blind and low vision persons. TSI's products helped visually impaired pe ...
, which used it in the "Speech+" talking calculator for blind persons. Later
National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer which specialized in analog devices and subsystems, formerly with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The company produced power management integrated circuits, display drive ...
also licensed the technology, used for its "DigiTalker" speech synthesizer, the MM54104.
In 1984, Mozer co-founded
Electronic Speech Systems (now ESS Technology) to develop and market speech synthesis systems based on Mozer's patents. His work in speech synthesis led to ideas of how to create a single-chip speech recognizer. In 1994, Mozer and his son Todd Mozer, founded Sensory Circuits, Inc. (now
Sensory, Inc.
Sensory, Inc. is an American company which develops software AI technologies for speech, sound and vision . It is based in Santa Clara County, California, Santa Clara, California.
Sensory's technologies have shipped in billions of products includ ...
), where they developed and introduced the RSC-164 speech recognition integrated circuit. Since its inception Sensory has supplied speech recognition to products that have sold more than half a billion units.
Mozer has 17 issued US patents in the areas of speech synthesis and speech recognition.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mozer, Forrest S.
20th-century American inventors
21st-century American inventors
1929 births
Living people
California Institute of Technology alumni
Fellows of the American Geophysical Union
American plasma physicists
Experimental physicists
Fellows of the American Physical Society
People from Lincoln, Nebraska
University of California, Berkeley faculty