Brother Jack Kilby
Illinois '42
Nobel Prize Winning Inventor & Engineer

Brother Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit in 1958 and the world has never been the same since. In recognition of his invention of the monolithic integrated circuit (aka the microchip), Brother Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000.

His invention over 40 years ago at Texas Instruments laid the conceptual and technical foundation for the entire field of modern microelectronics. It was this breakthrough that made possible the sophisticated high-speed computers and large-capacity semiconductor memories of today's information age. Brother Kilby holds 60-plus patents, including the first for the hand-held calculator.