Dr. John Moll Wins C&C Prize
October 27, 1997

Dr. John Moll, who played a seminal role in semiconductor development during his career at Bell Laboratories, Stanford University, Fairchild Camera and Instrument, and HP Laboratories, has been awarded the 1997 C&C Prize, which carries a cash prize of $80,000.

The Foundation for C&C Promotion in Tokyo, which awards the prize for advances in the integration of computers and communications technologies, cited Dr. Moll for his "contributions to physics of semiconductor devices." Dr. Moll will receive the prize, which also includes a medal and certificate, during a ceremony in Tokyo October 28.

As a member of the technical staff at Bell Labs from 1952 to 1958, Dr. Moll led a small group of scientists and engineers seeking a new technology to replace vacuum tubes and relays in the central offices of the telephone system. The group's pioneering work led to the identification of silicon as the most appropriate material for semiconductors and to the development of the Ebers-Moll transistor model. This model simulates the way a transistor works and remains fundamental to the manufacture of today's large-scale circuits.

Dr. Moll left Bell Labs in 1958 to become a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University, where he researched the physics of silicon devices. In 1969, he became technical director of the optoelectronics division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument. He joined HP in 1974 as director of integrated structures research and later worked at HP Laboratories as associate director of the superconductivity laboratory (1987-1990) and as a distinguished contributor, HP's highest technical position (1990-1996). He retired from HP Laboratories in December 1996.

A native of Wauseon, Ohio, Dr. Moll received his bachelor's degree in physics (1943) and doctorate in electrical engineering (1952) from Ohio State University.

Dr. Moll has been a Guggenheim Fellow (1964) and received the Franklin Institute's Howard N. Potts Medal (1967), Ohio State University's Distinguished Alumnus Award (1970), the IEEE's Ebers Award (1971), the IEEE's Edison Medal (1991), and Eta Kappa Nu's Vladimir Karapetoff Eminent Members' Award (1995).

He is a member of the American Physical Society, the IEEE, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Sciences. In addition, he is the author of "Physics of Semiconductors" (1964) and the co-author of "Computer Aided Design in VLSI Development" (published in 1985 and revised in 1988).