OBITUARIO

Boyle in Stockholm in 2009 after jointly receiving the Nobel Prize for Physics

Willard Boyle: Nobel Prize-winning physicist known as ‘the father of the digital camera’

By Martin Childs

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Willard Boyle and George Smith, "the fathers of the digital camera", shared the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physics. By creating the imaging technology, the "eyes" at the heart of digital cameras, Boyle and Smith helped to launch the digital imaging revolution.
The charge-coupled device (CCD), which allowed engineers to store a visual image in digital form, revolutionised consumer electronics and had a profound effect on astronomy and space science. CCDs are found in a range of products from point-and-shoot cameras, camcorders and smartphones to barcode readers, photocopiers and medical imaging devices. They can also be found in the Hubble space telescope. "It wouldn't have been possible without our invention," Boyle observed. In its Nobel citation, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said, "These inventions may have had a greater impact on humanity than any others in the last half-century."
Willard Sterling Boyle, physicist: born Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada 19 August 1924; married Betty Joyce (one son, two daughters, and one son deceased); died Wallace, Nova Scotia 7 May 2011.
Lo destacable de este notable científico es que en su niñez fue educado en casa por su madre, quien era enfermera.
Todo el artículo en este enlace del Independent UK.