PHYSICIST

Willard Boyle

1924 - 2011

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Willard Sterling Boyle, (August 19, 1924 – May 7, 2011) was a Canadian physicist. He was a pioneer in the field of laser technology and co-inventor of the charge-coupled device. As director of Space Science and Exploratory Studies at Bellcomm he helped select lunar landing sites and provided support for the Apollo space program. On October 6, 2009, it was announced that he would share the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for "the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor, which has become an electronic eye in almost all areas of photography". Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Willard Boyle is the 240th most popular physicist (down from 150th in 2019), the 36th most popular biography from Canada (down from 20th in 2019) and the 3rd most popular Canadian Physicist.

Willard Boyle was most famous for his work with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain in the invention of the transistor.

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Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Willard Boyle ranks 240 out of 851. Before him are Victor Weisskopf, Tsung-Dao Lee, Leo Esaki, Vitaly Ginzburg, Nikolay Basov, and Arthur Ashkin. After him are John Cockcroft, Gérard Mourou, William Shockley, David Bohm, Satyendra Nath Bose, and Ivar Giaever.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1924, Willard Boyle ranks 40. Before him are Sidney Lumet, Ezer Weizman, Benny Hill, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Amílcar Cabral, and Lee Marvin. After him are Antony Hewish, Luigi Nono, Henry Mancini, Dmitry Yazov, Jin Yong, and Francisco Macías Nguema. Among people deceased in 2011, Willard Boyle ranks 39. Before him are Necmettin Erbakan, Baruch Samuel Blumberg, Manfred Gerlach, Christa Wolf, Jane Russell, and Leka, Crown Prince of Albania. After him are Baruj Benacerraf, John Barry, Amy Winehouse, Lynn Margulis, Zdeněk Miler, and C. Odumegwu Ojukwu.

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In Canada

Among people born in Canada, Willard Boyle ranks 36 out of 1,622. Before him are Eric Berne (1910), David Johnston (1941), Frederick Banting (1891), Bryan Adams (1959), Neil Young (1945), and Sidney Altman (1939). After him are Henry Taube (1915), Paul Anka (1941), William Shatner (1931), William Vickrey (1914), James Naismith (1861), and Jim Peebles (1935).

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Among PHYSICISTS In Canada

Among physicists born in Canada, Willard Boyle ranks 3. Before him are Richard E. Taylor (1929), and Bertram Brockhouse (1918). After him are Jim Peebles (1935), Louis Slotin (1910), Donna Strickland (1959), Arthur Jeffrey Dempster (1886), Harriet Brooks (1876), Paul Corkum (1943), and Sylvia Fedoruk (1927).

Canadian born Physicists

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