[optacon-l] Re: John Linvill's obituary
- From: "Marie Rudys" <mrudys@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 08:59:35 -0800
For those who wants to read this article in the body of the message, here it
is:
John Linvill with his daughter, Candy, working on the Optacon
John Linvill invented the optical-to-tactile converter, or Optacon, as a
means to
allow his blind daughter, Candy, to read ordinary print.
BY ANDREW MYERS
John Linvill, professor emeritus of electrical engineering at Stanford and
inventor
of the Optacon reading device for the blind, has died. He was 91.
Linvill was a revered figure at Stanford as much for his self-effacing and
unpretentious
style as for his engineering foresight and his commitment to the
entrepreneurial
spirit. He chaired the Department of Electrical Engineering from 1964 to
1980 and
was a seminal figure in the School of Engineering during the 1960s and '70s
heyday
that fed well-trained electrical engineers to an eager and growing Silicon
Valley.
Born and raised in Missouri, Linvill received a bachelor's degree in
mathematics
from William Jewell College in 1941 before enrolling at the Massachusetts
Institute
of Technology, where he earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees
in electrical
engineering. After two years as an assistant professor at MIT, Linvill
joined Bell
Labs, doing research on transistor circuit design problems.
Linvill was content at Bell Labs, but in 1954, Stanford Engineering Dean
Fred Terman
came calling. Terman had in hand an unexpected gift from Sid Gilfillan, who
expressed
an interest in bringing someone to Stanford to build a program in the
application
of transistors. Terman's search led him to Linvill, who had earned a
reputation as
a proven and popular teacher while at MIT and an outstanding scholar in
research
in transistor circuits.
In 1955, Linvill became Stanford's first appointment in a discipline that
helped
to shape an industry that in turn shaped the world. While the trajectory of
Stanford's
program began with transistor circuit design, it took a dramatic turn in
1956 with
the arrival of William Shockley in Palo Alto, the heart what is now Silicon
Valley.
A shrewd judge of talent
During Linvill's career in the Department of Electrical Engineering, he
repeatedly
exhibited an intuitive understanding of transformative moments in research.
He was
able to see a breakthrough, to imagine its potential importance and to set
in motion
the wheels to make sure that Stanford led, always. He was a shrewd judge of
his own
talents and strengths, and an even shrewder judge of talent in others he
wanted to
join Stanford to realize the rare opportunity being presented to those with
an entrepreneurial
bent.
John Linvill
John Linvill
It was this quality that led Linvill to contemplate the sort of academic
preparation
that would best suit electrical engineering students intent on joining the
nascent
semiconductor industry. Linvill had to decide whether Stanford students
would be
better served by a curriculum in traditional circuit design or one that
included
a strong component of semiconductor device physics and fabrication.
Characteristically, Linvill tested his hypotheses on people of insight. In
the fall
of 1956 - the year William Shockley shared the Nobel Prize for the invention
of the
transistor - Linvill realized that he, Terman and Shockley held a similar
view: that
Silicon Valley would most need electrical engineers skilled in the art of
semiconductor
device design and fabrication.
Early conversations among the inventors led to a proposal in which Stanford
would
establish a laboratory where electrical engineering students could research
semiconductor
devices. But semiconductor fabrication was not yet part of any university
curriculum
and was, in some circles, considered dangerous for students.
Shockley believed the young professionals in his company were models for a
new sort
of engineer, and he agreed to provide the training necessary for Stanford to
build
a device fabrication laboratory. Stanford, in turn, would place a faculty
member
in Shockley's firm to learn the technology.
Linvill's next move was to persuade Jim Gibbons, one of his former PhD
students and
a future dean of engineering, to accept a 50-50 appointment at Stanford and
at Shockley
Semiconductor. Linvill's charge for Gibbons was to set up the lab and help
him initiate
a research curriculum at Stanford. Lab construction began on Aug. 1, 1957.
Just six
weeks later, on Sept. 19, Shockley's model young professionals left his firm
en masse
to form Fairchild Semiconductor. By then, however, the embryonic Stanford
lab was
under way, and by March 1958, working with just a student and a technician,
Gibbons
had succeeded in producing Stanford's first semiconductor device, a year
ahead of
schedule.
The first step in Linvill's vision for solid-state electronics at Stanford
was complete.
In quick succession he brought on Gerald Pearson, a talented Bell Labs
researcher
and a co-inventor of the silicon photovoltaic cell, and John Moll, an
established
expert in the physics of transistor operation and co-inventor of the MOS
transistor.
Together with Linvill and Gibbons, they created Stanford's first program in
graduate
research and education in solid-state devices. Soon, Bill Spicer, Jim Angell
and,
later, Robert White would enrich Stanford's faculty. In just a few short
years, Linvill
had assembled the core of Stanford's storied Solid State Laboratory,
progenitor of
several important electrical engineering laboratories at Stanford.
Later, Linvill would entice and mentor integrated circuit pioneers Jim
Meindl, founder
of Stanford's Integrated Circuits Laboratory; John Hennessy, founder of MIPS
and
now president of Stanford; Jim Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics; and
Jim Plummer,
current dean of the School of Engineering. Many of these early hires and
large numbers
of students remained lifelong friends.
Invented device to help blind people read
Linvill reveled in his role of mentor. He was genuinely interested in the
success
of others, especially entrepreneurial success. Linvill applied his
engineering creativity
and his entrepreneurial spirit to help his daughter, Candy, who became blind
in infancy.
Linvill sought a way to help her to directly read printed materials without
translation
into Braille. His solution, using integrated circuits developed in the labs
and with
the help of colleagues at Stanford and the Stanford Research Institute, was
the Optacon
(optical-to-tactile converter). The Optacon was a portable device with a
small, hand-held
camera that could be moved across any type of printed material to generate
images
on a fingertip-sized tactile display that were then felt and interpreted by
a blind
reader.
Linvill received a patent for the Optacon in 1966. He was a co-founder in
1970 of
Telesensory Systems Inc., a company established to manufacture and
disseminate the
Optacon worldwide. The Optacon was to become one of the most important
examples of
how technology could be applied to the development of assistive devices for
people
with disabilities. In 1971, Industrial Research Inc. named the Optacon one
of the
100 most significant products of the year. Helped greatly by her father's
invention,
Candy attended Stanford and went on to earn her doctorate in clinical
psychology.
The late 1970s demanded a new era of innovation in Stanford's electrical
engineering
curriculum. The advent of the microprocessor at Intel introduced electronic
hardware
controlled by software programs integrated in the system. Linvill and
colleagues
foresaw that optimum system design would soon require the creation of
hardware and
software designed for specific applications - computer graphics, for
example - and
that groundbreaking research would require an effective partnership between
electrical
engineering and computer science. The result was Stanford's Center for
Integrated
Systems (CIS).
Linvill and CIS colleagues anticipated, as well, that with the proper
openness, integrated
systems research would profit by engaging with forward-looking electronics
companies.
As co-director of CIS, Linvill conceived and implemented a visitors program
in CIS
to bring industry professionals to Stanford and the Fellow/Mentor/Advisor
(FMA) program
that placed Stanford doctoral candidates in industry for a portion of their
education.
More than 30 years later, CIS has become the model for university-corporate
partnerships.
In 2007, at a special celebration surrounded by his family, Linvill was
surprised
by a group of former students, colleagues and friends who had endowed the
Professor
John G. Linvill Fellowship Fund, which supports the education of an
outstanding graduate
student in electrical engineering. Many of those contributors had flown in
from across
the country to toast their friend and mentor.
In addition to serving as chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering,
Linvill
was associate dean of the School of Engineering from 1972 to 1980, and was
the Canon
USA Professor of Electrical Engineering from its endowment in 1989 until his
retirement
at the end of 1990. As a professor emeritus, Linvill continued to follow his
passions,
focusing research on integrated systems.
Linvill was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers
in 1960 and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1971 and
the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1974. He received the IEEE Education Medal
in 1976
and the John Scott Award in 1980 for his work on the Optacon.
Linvill was honored with the American Electronics Association's Medal of
Achievement
in 1983 for his significant contributions to the advancement of electronics.
He was
recipient of the Louis Braille Prize (1984) from the Deutscher
Blindenverband for
the invention of the Optacon.
John Grimes Linvill was born on Aug. 8, 1919, in Kansas City, Mo. His twin
brother,
William, also a Stanford professor, died in 1980. He is survived by his
wife, Marjorie
Linvill, of Palo Alto; a son, Greg (Betty), of Belmont, Calif.; a daughter,
Candy
Berg (Chris), of Portola Valley, Calif.; two granddaughters, Angela and
Alyssa Linvill;
and a great grandson, Sato Ramsaran.
A service celebrating Linvill's life will be held at the Stanford Faculty
Club on
May 23 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. The family asks that donations in memory of
John G.
Linvill be made to the LMSarcoma Direct Research Foundation in Tulsa, Okla.
(
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Bliss" <jamescbliss@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 6:28 AM
Subject: [optacon-l] John Linvill's obituary
> John Linvill has died and below is a link to his obituary:
> http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/march/john-linvill-obit-031011.html
>
> Jim Bliss
>
>
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