Gordon Moore facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gordon Moore
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Moore in 1978
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Gordon Earle Moore
January 3, 1929 Pescadero, California, U.S.
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| Died | March 24, 2023 (aged 94) Waimea, Hawaii, U.S.
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| Thesis | I. Infrared Studies of Nitrous Acid, The Chloramines and Nitrogen Dioxide II. Observations Concerning the Photochemical Decomposition of Nitric Oxide (1954) |
Gordon Earle Moore (January 3, 1929 – March 24, 2023) was an American businessman, engineer, and the co-founder and emeritus chairman of Intel Corporation. He proposed Moore's law, the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years.
As of February 2023, Moore's net worth was reported to be $7 billion.
Contents
Early life and education
Gordon Moore was born in 1929 (the same year the Great Depression started) as the second son of Walter Harold Moore (a county sheriff stationed in San Mateo County) and Florence Almira "Mira" Williamson (a homemaker). When Moore first started school in 1935, he was first cited by the faculty for his introvert personality. In 1938, when his father accepted a promotion to deputy sheriff, Moore and his family moved to Redwood City, California. In 1940, Moore received a chemistry set as a Christmas gift, which inspired him to become a chemist. From 1942 to 1946, Moore studied at Sequoia High School, where he would engage in athletic activities. From 1946 to 1947, Moore went to San José State College (now San José State University) to major chemistry. When Moore went to University of California, Berkeley from 1948, he would take chemistry courses taught by Nobel laureates and then-laureates-to be Glenn Seaborg, Melvin Calvin, and William Giauque, before graduating in 1950 with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry.
In September 1950, Moore enrolled at the California Institute of Technology ("Caltech"). While at Caltech, Moore minored in physics and received a PhD in chemistry in 1954. Moore conducted postdoctoral research at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University from 1953 to 1956.
Scientific career
Fairchild Semiconductor Laboratory
Moore joined MIT and Caltech alumnus William Shockley at the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory division of Beckman Instruments, but left with the "traitorous eight," when Sherman Fairchild agreed to back them and created the influential Fairchild Semiconductor corporation.
Moore's law
In 1965, Moore was working as the director of research and development (R&D) at Fairchild Semiconductor. He was asked by Electronics Magazine to predict what was going to happen in the semiconductor components industry over the next ten years. In an article published on April 19, 1965, Moore observed that the number of components (transistors, resistors, diodes, or capacitors) in a dense integrated circuit had doubled approximately every year and speculated that it would continue to do so for at least the next ten years. In 1975, he revised the forecast rate to approximately every two years. Carver Mead popularized the phrase "Moore's law". The prediction has become a target for miniaturization in the semiconductor industry and has had widespread impact in many areas of technological change.
Intel Corporation
In July 1968, Robert Noyce and Moore founded NM Electronics, which later became Intel Corporation. Moore served as executive vice president until 1975 when he became president. In April 1979, Moore became chairman and chief executive officer, holding that position until April 1987, when he became chairman. He was named chairman emeritus in 1997. Under Noyce, Moore, and later Andrew Grove, Intel has pioneered new technologies in the areas of computer memory, integrated circuits, and microprocessor design. On April 11, 2022, Intel renamed its main Oregon site, the Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro, Gordon Moore Park, and the building formerly known as RA4, Moore Center, after their founder.
Philanthropy
In 2000, Moore and his wife established the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, with a gift worth about $5 billion. Through the foundation, they initially targeted environmental conservation, science, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The foundation gives extensively in the area of environmental conservation, supporting major projects in the Andes–Amazon Basin and the San Francisco Bay area, among others. Moore was a director of Conservation International for some years. In 2002, he and Conservation International senior vice president Claude Gascon received the Order of the Golden Ark from Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld for their outstanding contributions to nature conservation.
Moore had been a member of Caltech's board of trustees since 1983, chairing it from 1993 to 2000, and was a life trustee at the time of his death. In 2001, Moore and his wife donated $600 million to Caltech, at the time the largest gift ever to an institution of higher education. He said he wanted the gift to be used to keep Caltech at the forefront of research and technology.
In December 2007, Moore and his wife donated $200 million to Caltech and the University of California for the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), expected to become the world's second largest optical telescope once it and the European Extremely Large Telescope are completed in the mid-2020s. The TMT will have a segmented mirror 30 meters across and be built on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. This mirror will be nearly three times the size of the current record holder, the Large Binocular Telescope.
The Moores, as individuals and through their foundation, have also, in a series of gifts and grants beginning in the 1990s, given some $166 million to the University of California, Berkeley to fund initiatives ranging from materials science and physics to genomics and data science.
In addition, through the foundation, his wife created the Betty Irene Moore Nursing Initiative, targeting nursing care in the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Sacramento. In 2007, the foundation pledged $100 million over 11 years to establish a nursing school at the University of California, Davis. The Moores have also been long-time benefactors of other Northern California institutions, including Stanford University (over $190 million as of 2022), University of California, San Francisco, and University of California, Santa Cruz.
In 2009, the Moores received the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.
Scientific awards and honors
Moore received many honors. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1976 for contributions to semiconductor devices from transistors to microprocessors.
In 1990, Moore was presented with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President George H. W. Bush, "for his seminal leadership in bringing American industry the two major postwar innovations in microelectronics – large-scale integrated memory and the microprocessor – that have fueled the information revolution".
In 1998, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Computer History Museum "for his fundamental early work in the design and production of semiconductor devices as co-founder of Fairchild and Intel".
In 2001, Moore received the Othmer Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to progress in chemistry and science. Moore was also the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, as of 2002. He received the award from President George W. Bush. In 2002, Moore also received the Bower Award for Business Leadership.
In 2003, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2005.
Moore was awarded the 2008 IEEE Medal of Honor for "pioneering technical roles in integrated-circuit processing, and leadership in the development of MOS memory, the microprocessor computer, and the semiconductor industry". Moore was featured in the documentary film Something Ventured which premiered in 2011.
In 2009, Moore was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He was awarded the 2010 Dan David Prize for his work in the areas of Computers and Telecommunications.
The library at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge is named after him and his wife Betty, as are the Moore Laboratories building (dedicated 1996) at Caltech and the Gordon and Betty Moore Materials Research Building at Stanford. The Electrochemical Society presents an award in Moore's name, the Gordon E. Moore Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Solid State Science and Technology, every two years to celebrate scientists' contributions to the field of solid state science. The Society of Chemical Industry (American Section) annually presents the Gordon E. Moore Medal in his honor to recognize early career success in innovation in the chemical industries.
Moore was awarded the UCSF medal in 2016.
Personal life
Moore first met his wife, Betty Irene Whitaker, in 1947 during a student government conference at the Asilomar Conference Grounds. They later married in 1950, and Moore became a father to two sons; Kenneth Moore (b. 1954) and Steven Moore (b. 1959).
Moore was an avid fisherman since childhood, and he would extensively travel with his wife, sons, or fellow colleagues to catch species such as bass, marlin, salmon, and trout. He said his conservation efforts were partly inspired by his interest in fishing and his time spent outdoors.
In 2011, Moore's genome was the first human genome sequenced on Ion Torrent's Personal Genome Machine platform, a massively parallel sequencing device, which uses ISFET biosensors.
Moore died at his home in Hawaii on March 24, 2023, at the age of 94.
See also
In Spanish: Gordon Moore para niños
