George E. Smith

George Elwood Smith (May 10, 1930 – May 28, 2025) was an American applied physicist and a co-inventor of the charge-coupled device (CCD). Smith shared one half of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics with Willard Boyle "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit - the CCD sensor."

Education George Elwood Smith was born on May 10, 1930, in White Plains, New York. After serving in the United States Navy for four years and taking courses at the University of Miami, Smith qualified as a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania in 1952, graduating with a B.S. in 1955. He then became a teaching assistant at the University of Chicago, where he received his Ph.D. in 1959 with a thesis on the anomalous skin effect in bismuth.

Career From 1959 until his retirement in 1986, Smith worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where he led research into novel lasers and semiconductor devices. During his tenure, Smith was awarded dozens of patents and eventually headed the VLSI device department.

In 1969, Smith and Willard Boyle invented the charge-coupled device (CCD), for which they have jointly received the Franklin Institute's Stuart Ballantine Medal in 1973, the 1974 IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award, the 2006 Charles Stark Draper Prize, and the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Personal life and death Both Boyle and Smith were avid sailors who took many trips together. After retirement, Smith sailed around the world with his life partner, Janet, for seventeen years, eventually giving up his hobby in 2003 to "spare his 'creaky bones' from further storms".

Smith died at his home in Barnegat Township, New Jersey, on May 28, 2025, at the age of 95.

Recognition Awards Year Organization Award Citation 1973 Franklin Institute Stuart Ballantine Medal "Invention of charge-coupled device structure for imagesensing, serial memory and signal processing." 1974 IEEE IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award "For the invention of the charge-coupled device and leadership in the field of MOS device physics." 1999 NEC C&C Foundation C&C Prize "For the Invention of the Charge-Coupled Device (CCD)." 2001 Edwin H. Land Medal "For the invention and development of the charge-coupled device, a contribution that has had extraordinary impact on image creation and utilization." 2006 National Academy of Engineering Charles Stark Draper Prize "For the invention of the Charge-Coupled Device (CCD), a light-sensitive component at the heart of digital cameras and other widely used imaging technologies." 2009 Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Nobel Prize in Physics "For the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit - the CCD sensor." 2017 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering "For their work on Digital Imaging Sensors."

Memberships Year Organization Type 1983 National Academy of Engineering Member