Gordon Earle Moore was born on January 3, 1929, and passed away on March 24, 2023. He was an American businessman, scientist, and engineer. He co-founded Intel Corporation and served as its former chairman. Moore introduced Moore's Law, which states that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (a small electronic component) increases by about twice every two years.
Early life and education
Gordon Moore was born in 1929 as the second child of Walter Harold Moore, who worked as a sheriff in San Mateo County, and Florence Almira "Mira" Williamson, who was a homemaker. When Moore began school in 1935, his teachers noticed he was quiet and shy. In 1938, his father accepted a new job as a deputy sheriff, and the family moved to Redwood City, California. In 1940, Moore received a chemistry set as a Christmas gift, which made him interested in becoming a chemist. From 1942 to 1946, Moore attended Sequoia High School and participated in sports.
Moore went to San José State College, now known as San José State University, from 1946 to 1947, where he studied chemistry. In 1948, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated in 1950 with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry. From 1950 to 1954, Moore studied at the California Institute of Technology, where he earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in chemistry in 1954. From 1953 to 1956, Moore did research at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.
Scientific career
Gordon Moore worked with William Shockley, who graduated from MIT and Caltech. They were part of the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory at Beckman Instruments. However, Moore and seven others left the group, known as the "traitorous eight," when Sherman Fairchild offered to support them. They started Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation.
In 1965, Moore was the director of research and development (R&D) at Fairchild Semiconductor. He was asked by Electronics Magazine to predict what might happen in the semiconductor industry over the next ten years. In an article published on April 19, 1965, Moore noted that the number of components in a dense integrated circuit had doubled about every year and believed this trend would continue for at least ten years. In 1975, he updated the prediction to about every two years. Carver Mead later popularized the term "Moore's Law." This prediction became a goal for making components smaller in the semiconductor industry and influenced many areas of technological progress.
In July 1968, Robert Noyce and Moore started NM Electronics, which later became Intel Corporation. Moore was executive vice president until 1975, when he became president. In April 1979, he became chairman and chief executive officer, holding that role until April 1987, when he became chairman. He was named chairman emeritus in 1997. Under Noyce, Moore, and later Andrew Grove, Intel developed new technologies for computer memory, integrated circuits, and microprocessor design. On April 11, 2022, Intel renamed its main Oregon site, the Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro, as "Gordon Moore Park," and the building formerly known as RA4 as "Moore Center," in honor of Gordon Moore.
Philanthropy
As of February 2023, Moore's net worth was reported to be $7 billion.
In 2000, Moore and his wife started the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation with a donation of about $5 billion. The foundation focused on environmental conservation, science, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The foundation gives money to protect the environment, supporting projects in the Andes–Amazon Basin, including Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Suriname, as well as the San Francisco Bay area. Moore served on the board of Conservation International for several years. In 2002, he and Conservation International’s senior vice president, Claude Gascon, received the Order of the Golden Ark from Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands for their work in nature conservation.
Moore was on the board of trustees at Caltech from 1983, leading it from 1993 to 2000. At the time of his death, he was still a life trustee. In 2001, Moore and his wife gave $600 million to Caltech, which was the largest gift ever given to a higher education institution. He wanted the money to help Caltech stay at the forefront of research and technology.
In December 2007, Moore and his wife donated $200 million to Caltech and the University of California to build the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). The TMT will be the world’s second-largest optical telescope once it and the European Extremely Large Telescope are completed in the mid-2020s. The telescope will have a mirror made of many pieces, 30 meters wide, and will be built on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. This mirror will be nearly three times the size of the current largest optical telescope, the Large Binocular Telescope.
The Moores, through their foundation and as individuals, gave about $166 million to the University of California, Berkeley, starting in the 1990s. This money supported projects in materials science, physics, genomics, and data science.
Through the foundation, Moore’s wife created the Betty Irene Moore Nursing Initiative, which focuses on improving nursing care in the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Sacramento. In 2007, the foundation promised $100 million over 11 years to help start a nursing school at the University of California, Davis. The Moores also supported other Northern California institutions, including Stanford University (over $190 million as of 2022), the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Santa Cruz.
In 2009, the Moores received the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.
Scientific awards and honors
Moore received many honors. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1976 for contributions to semiconductor devices, including transistors and microprocessors.
In 1990, Moore was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President George H. W. Bush for his important role in bringing two major postwar innovations in microelectronics to American industry: large-scale integrated memory and the microprocessor. These innovations helped drive the information revolution.
In 1998, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Computer History Museum for his early work in designing and producing semiconductor devices, as co-founder of Fairchild and Intel.
In 2001, Moore received the Othmer Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to progress in chemistry and science. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, in 2002. President George W. Bush presented the award. In 2002, Moore received the Bower Award for Business Leadership.
In 2003, Moore was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2005.
Moore was awarded the 2008 IEEE Medal of Honor for pioneering technical roles in integrated-circuit processing and leadership in the development of MOS memory, the microprocessor computer, and the semiconductor industry. He was featured in the 2011 documentary film Something Ventured, where he described Intel's first business plan as "one page, double spaced" with "a lot of typos."
In 2009, Moore was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He was awarded the 2010 Dan David Prize for his work in computers and telecommunications.
The library at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge is named after Moore and his wife, Betty. The Moore Laboratories building at Caltech (dedicated in 1996) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Materials Research Building at Stanford are also named in their honor. The Electrochemical Society presents the Gordon E. Moore Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Solid State Science and Technology every two years to recognize scientists' contributions to solid-state science. The Society of Chemical Industry (American Section) annually presents the Gordon E. Moore Medal to recognize early career success in innovation within the chemical industries.
Moore was awarded the UCSF medal in 2016.
Personal life
In 1947, Moore met his future wife, Betty Irene Whitaker, during a student government meeting at the Asilomar Conference Grounds. They married in 1950, and Moore became a father to two sons: Kenneth Moore (born in 1954) and Steven Moore (born in 1959).
Moore loved fishing since childhood. He traveled to many places with his wife, sons, or colleagues to catch fish such as bass, marlin, salmon, and trout. He said his work to protect the environment was partly inspired by his love for fishing and time spent outdoors.
In 2011, Moore’s genome was the first to be sequenced using the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine, a special device that reads DNA using sensors called ISFET biosensors.
Moore passed away at his home in Waimea, Hawaii, on March 24, 2023, at the age of 94. The San Francisco Chronicle described him as a "Silicon Valley icon who co-founded Intel." At the time, Intel’s CEO, Pat Gelsinger, said Moore "defined the technology industry through his insight and vision."