Willard Boyle

Willard Boyle was a Canadian physicist who was a pioneer in the field of laser technology and co-inventor of the charge-coupled device (CCD), which is widely used in digital cameras, telescopes, scanners, and other imaging devices. He was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, on August 19, 1924, and was home schooled by his mother until age 14. He attended McGill University, where he earned his BSc, MSc, and PhD in physics. He joined the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II and learned how to land Spitfires on aircraft carriers. He taught physics at the Royal Military College of Canada from 1951 to 1953, and then joined Bell Labs in the United States, where he worked on semiconductors, lasers, and integrated circuits. In 1962, he invented the first continuously operating ruby laser with Don Nelson. In 1969, he and George E. Smith invented the CCD, which revolutionized the field of photography and astronomy by converting light into electrical signals. He was the director of Space Science and Exploratory Studies at Bellcomm from 1962 to 1964, where he helped select lunar landing sites and provided support for the Apollo space program. He received many awards and honors for his contributions to science, including the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009, along with Smith and Charles Kao. He was also appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2010. He was married to Betty Boyle since 1946 and had four children. He died of kidney failure on May 7, 2011, in Truro, Nova Scotia.