Gordon Earle Moore is an American businessman and co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Intel
Corporation and the author of Moore's Law.
Education Moore was born in San Francisco, California,
and grew up in nearby Pescadero. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry
from the University of California, Berkeley in 1950 and a PhD in chemistry and minor in
physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1954. Prior to studying at Berkeley, he
spent his freshman and sophomore years at San Jose State University, where he met his
future wife, Betty. Moore completed postdoctoral research at the Applied Physics Laboratory
at the Johns Hopkins University until 1956. Career
Moore joined 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.
In July 1968, Moore co-founded NM Electronics which later became Intel Corporation with
Robert Noyce and served as Executive Vice President until 1975 when he became President.
In April 1979, Moore became Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, holding
that position until April 1987, when he became Chairman of the Board. He was named Chairman
Emeritus of Intel Corporation in 1997. Moore has been a member of the Board of Directors
of Gilead Sciences since 1996, after serving as a member of the company's Business Advisory
Board from 1991 until 1996. Moore has been a member of Caltech's board
of trustees since 1983, chairing it from 1993 to 2000, and is now a life trustee. With his
wife he endowed the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. In 2001, Moore and his wife donated
$600 million to Caltech, the largest gift ever to an institution of higher education.
He said that he wants the gift to be used to keep Caltech at the forefront of research
and technology. On December 6, 2007, Gordon Moore and his
wife donated $200 million to Caltech and the University of California for the construction
of the Thirty Meter Telescope, the world's largest optical telescope. The telescope will
have a mirror 30 meters across. This is nearly three times the size of the current record
holder, Large Binocular Telescope. Awards and honors
In 2001, Moore received the Othmer Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to progress
in chemistry and science. In 2002, Moore 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 awarded the Dan David Prize for 2010 Future - 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 at Caltech and the Gordon and Betty Moore Materials Research
Building at Stanford. 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.
Moore is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is the recipient of the
National Medal of Technology and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest
civilian honor. In 1998 he was inducted as a Fellow of the Computer History Museum.
Personal life Moore enjoys many different recreational activities,
including car painting and making model airplanes. He has said his conservation efforts are partly
inspired by his interest in fishing. In 2011, Moore's genome was the first human
genome sequenced on Ion Torrent's Personal Genome Machine platform, a massively parallel
sequencing device. Ion Torrent's device obtains sequence information by directly sensing ions
produced by DNA polymerase synthesis using ion-sensitive field effect transistor sensors.
References
External links The Fairchild Chronicles
Gordon E. Moore Association by the Horatio Alger Foundation
Childhood Home of Gordon Moore in Pescadero, CA
Biography at Intel website Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People
Moore says nanoelectronics face tough challenges – By Michael Kanellos, CNET News.com, March
9, 2005 [1]
Interview with Caltech News Dedication of Moore Labs at Caltech
The Accidental Entrepreneur,: From Caltech to Intel