Gordon Moore
Gordon Moore | |
|---|---|
| Born | Gordon Earle Moore 3 January 1929 San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Died | 24 March 2023 (aged 94) Waimea, Hawaii, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur, engineer |
| Years active | 1950s–2023 |
| Known for | Co-founder of Intel Corporation, Moore's law |
Gordon Earle Moore (January 3, 1929 – March 24, 2023) was an American entrepreneur, engineer, and co-founder as well as emeritus chairman of Intel Corporation. He gained widespread recognition for formulating Moore's law, which observes that the transistor count on integrated circuits roughly doubles every two years.
Early life and education
Born in 1929, Gordon Moore was the second son of Walter Harold Moore, who served as a sheriff in San Mateo County, and Florence Almira "Mira" Williamson. The family relocated to Redwood City, California in 1938 following his father’s promotion. A chemistry set gifted to him in 1940 sparked his fascination with chemistry. Moore attended Sequoia High School from 1942 until 1946. He initially studied chemistry at San José State College before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1950.
In September of that year, Moore began graduate studies at the California Institute of Technology ("Caltech"), obtaining a Ph.D. in chemistry by 1954. Subsequently, he undertook postdoctoral research at the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University between 1953 and 1956.
Fairchild Semiconductor Laboratory
Moore initially worked alongside William Shockley, a fellow alumnus of MIT and Caltech, at Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory. However, he departed with seven colleagues—later known as the "traitorous eight"—when Sherman Fairchild provided backing for them to establish Fairchild Semiconductor.
Moore's law
While serving as Fairchild Semiconductor’s research and development director in 1965, Moore forecasted in Electronics Magazine that integrated circuit component counts would double about every year over the next decade. He later adjusted this projection in 1975 to a doubling every two years. This prediction, which Carver Mead popularized as "Moore's law," has since become a central benchmark guiding semiconductor scaling and technological progress.
Intel Corporation
In July 1968, Robert Noyce and Moore co-founded NM Electronics, which was soon renamed Intel Corporation. Moore held the position of executive vice president until 1975, then served as president, followed by chairman and CEO from 1979 to 1987. He was appointed chairman emeritus in 1997. Alongside Noyce and Andrew Grove, Moore played a pivotal role in propelling innovations in computer memory, integrated circuits, and microprocessor architecture. In April 2022, Intel commemorated Moore by renaming its primary Oregon campus 'Gordon Moore Park' and dedicating a major building as 'Moore Center'.
Philanthropy
As of February 2023, Moore’s net worth was estimated at $7 billion.
In 2000, he and his wife established the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation with an initial endowment near $5 billion aimed at environmental preservation, scientific advancement, and regional development in the San Francisco Bay Area. The foundation actively supports significant initiatives within the Andes–Amazon Basin as well as local Bay Area projects. Moore also held a directorship at Conservation International and received the Order of the Golden Ark alongside Claude Gascon in 2002 for their conservation efforts.
Moore maintained a long-standing trusteeship at Caltech, chairing its board from 1993 through 2000. In 2001, he and his wife contributed $600 million to Caltech—the largest donation to any academic institution at that time—to bolster research and technological leadership. Later in December 2007, they donated $200 million jointly to Caltech and the University of California for constructing the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The TMT will boast a segmented mirror spanning 30 meters—almost triple the size of existing telescopes.
Since the 1990s, through both their foundation and personal philanthropy, the Moores have given around $166 million to University of California, Berkeley supporting materials science, physics, genomics, and data science programs. Betty Moore initiated the Betty Irene Moore Nursing Initiative aimed at enhancing nursing care across the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Sacramento regions. In addition, the foundation pledged $100 million over eleven years starting in 2007 to establish a nursing school at University of California, Davis. The couple has also been prominent donors to other Northern California universities including Stanford University (exceeding $190 million by 2022), University of California, San Francisco, and University of California, Santa Cruz.
Acknowledging their extensive philanthropic contributions, the Moores were awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2009.
Scientific awards and honors
Moore was the recipient of a wide array of accolades acknowledging his transformative influence on the semiconductor sector. In 1976, he gained election to the National Academy of Engineering for his groundbreaking work spanning semiconductor devices, from transistors to microprocessors.
In recognition of his pioneering leadership in developing large-scale integrated memory and microprocessors—critical catalysts of the information age—President George H. W. Bush honored him with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 1990.
His foundational role as co-founder of Fairchild and Intel earned him induction as a Fellow of the Computer History Museum in 1998. Three years later, in 2001, Moore was awarded the Othmer Gold Medal for exceptional achievements in chemistry and science. The subsequent year brought him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian distinction, presented by President George W. Bush. That same year, he also received the Bower Award for Business Leadership.
Moore was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2003 and joined the ranks of the American Philosophical Society in 2005. His pioneering contributions to integrated-circuit fabrication, MOS memory, microprocessors, and leadership within the semiconductor industry were honored with the prestigious IEEE Medal of Honor in 2008.
In 2011, Moore featured in the documentary Something Ventured, sharing reflections on Intel’s succinct yet powerful early business strategy.
His induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame occurred in 2009, followed by receiving the Dan David Prize in 2010 for his accomplishments in computing and telecommunications.
Several institutions commemorate his legacy through naming: Cambridge’s Centre for Mathematical Sciences houses a library bearing his name; Caltech’s Moore Laboratories; and Stanford’s Gordon and Betty Moore Materials Research Building. The Electrochemical Society awards a biennial Gordon E. Moore Medal honoring excellence in solid-state science, while the Society of Chemical Industry (American Section) annually grants a Gordon E. Moore Medal recognizing innovation by early-career professionals within chemical industries.
In 2016, Moore received the distinguished UCSF medal, highlighting his enduring impact on science and technology.
Personal life
Moore met Betty Irene Whitaker in 1947 at a student government conference held at the Asilomar Conference Grounds. They wed three years later, in 1950, and had two sons: Kenneth (born 1954) and Steven (born 1959).
A lifelong fishing enthusiast, Moore frequently traveled with family and colleagues to pursue bass, marlin, salmon, and trout fishing adventures. His dedication to conservation was partially motivated by these outdoor passions.
In 2011, Moore’s genome became the inaugural sequence processed using Ion Torrent’s semiconductor-based Personal Genome Machine.
He passed away at his residence in Waimea, Hawaii, on March 24, 2023, at age 94. The San Francisco Chronicle remembered him as a "Silicon Valley icon who co-founded Intel," while Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger lauded Moore for shaping the technology industry through his vision and insight.
Sources
External links
- Pages with script errors
- Articles with short description
- Articles with hCards
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- 1929 births
- 2023 deaths
- American billionaires
- American technology chief executives
- American physical chemists
- California Institute of Technology alumni
- 21st-century American philanthropists
- IEEE Medal of Honor recipients
- Intel people
- Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
- National Medal of Technology recipients
- Businesspeople from San Francisco
- Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
- San Jose State University alumni
- UC Berkeley College of Chemistry alumni
- Berkeley Student Cooperative alumni
- American chief executives of manufacturing companies
- People from Pescadero, California
- Members of the American Philosophical Society
- Scientists at Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory
- Sequoia High School (Redwood City, California) alumni
- Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) laureates