George Smoot Horsley (1916 – 1992) was a physicist and pioneer in printed circuitry and semiconductors. He was one of the first four recruits by

William Shockley William Bradford Shockley Jr. (February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) was an American physicist and inventor. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The three scientists were jointly ...

to help develop technologies at

Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory was a pioneering semiconductor developer founded by William Shockley, and funded by Beckman Instruments, Inc., in 1955. It was the first high technology company in what came to be known as Silicon Valley to wo ...

Early life

Horsley was born in 1916 in Brigham City,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

parents Golden and Mary Horsley. He served in the

US Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

during World War II, originally commissioned a Second Lieutenant in 1942 and assigned to field artillery. He attained the rank of First Lieutenant and earned his

Aviator Badge An aviator badge is an insignia used in most of the world's militaries to designate those who have received training and qualification in military aviation. Also known as a Pilot's Badge, or Pilot Wings, the Aviator Badge was first conceived to rec ...

to become a pilot in October 1943. He had served as a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

and in 1945 was named an acting

Chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

aboard a ship bound for North Africa. He served in Africa and Italy. In 1945, near the close of the war, he began taking a course in Algebra with the Armed Forces Institute. After his military service had ended, he enrolled at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

, where his grades were sufficient to admit him into

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

. He obtained his PhD in physics from University of Utah in 1954.

Career

During the winter of 1954–1955, William Shockley decided to seek a sponsor to help him establish production of complex transistors and his own

Shockley diode The Shockley diode (named after physicist William Shockley) is a four-layer semiconductor diode, which were one of the first semiconductor devices invented. It is a PNPN diode, with alternating layers of P-type and N-type material. It is equ ...

s. He was initially supported by

Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliza ...

, but the agreement was soon canceled by that company. After Shockley subsequently established

under the umbrella of

Beckman Instruments Beckman Coulter Inc. is a Danaher Corporation company that develops, manufactures, and markets products that simplify, automate and innovate complex biomedical testing. It operates in two industries: Diagnostics and Life Sciences. For more than ...

, he recruited four men: William W. Happ who he knew from Raytheon, Horsley and

Leopoldo B. Valdes Leopoldo Benjamin Valdes was a pioneer in semiconductors. He was one of the first four recruits by William Shockley to help develop technologies at Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory. Career During the winter of 1954–1955, William Shockley deci ...

both of whom he knew from

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

, and

Richard Victor Jones Richard Victor Jones (1929 – November 11, 2019) was a Professor of Applied Physics at Harvard University and a pioneer in semiconductors. He was one of the first four recruits by William Shockley to help develop technologies at Shockley Semicon ...

, a new

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

graduate. Horsley had also previously worked at

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...

. Horsley's name appears on Shockley patents originally from 1959 but re-dated 1964 after Shockley Labs had been sold to Clevite.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horsley, George Smoot University of Utah alumni 20th-century American physicists Silicon Valley people 1916 births 1992 deaths Scientists at Bell Labs Scientists at Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory People from Brigham City, Utah Motorola employees United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II Aviators from Utah Recipients of the Air Medal