Dr. Willis Alfred Adcock

He was a Canadian-American physical chemist, electrical engineer, and university professor who worked on the first atomic bomb and assisted with the invention of the silicon transistor, as well as the integrated circuit. He attended Hobart College where he obtained a B.S. in Math and Chemistry in 1944. After graduating, he joined the US Army where he became a technical staff member in the Clinton Laboratories in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. While in the Army, he received United States citizenship and was a member of the team that developed the atomic bomb. He left the Army in 1948 to pursue his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at Brown University. He was a technical staff member for Stanolind Oil and Gas Company, which eventually became a part of Amoco, and then became Manager of Development at the Integrated Circuits Department at Texas Instruments, in Dallas, Texas. While there, he grew silicon boules for construction of the first silicon transistor, and later assisted with the development of the first silicon integrated circuits built at TI, and became the first TI Principal Fellow. He left Texas Instruments for a year in 1964 to work as technical director for Sperry Semiconductor in Norwalk, Connecticut, but returned to TI in 1965 as Manager of Advanced Planning and Technical Development. He was later Assistant Vice President and finally Vice President of Corporate Staff from 1982 until his retirement from TI in 1986. After retiring from TI, he moved to Austin, Texas and became a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Texas at Austin where he contributed articles to professional journals and developed a novel SEMATECH Research Center of Excellence at the University. He was a fellow of the I.E.E.E. and A.A.A.S., and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Chemical Society and Sigma XI. He was a Phi Beta Kappa Principal Fellow of the Texas Institute. He was awarded an honorary degree from Hobart College in 1989. He also provided oral commentary for an Electronic Watch exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution. He was awarded patents for the first electronic photography system, and most recently received a government patent for his Gyroscopic Torque Converter in 2003.