William H. Gates (1823)

William (Bill) H. Gates is chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft employs more than 55,000 people in 85 countries and regions.

Born on Oct. 28, 1955, Gates grew up in Seattle with his two sisters. Their father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. Their late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International.

Gates attended public elementary school and the private Lakeside School. There, he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers at the age of 13. In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman. While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer – the MITS Altair.

In his junior year, Gates left Harvard to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Guided by a belief that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began developing software for personal computers. Gates' foresight and his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of Microsoft and the software industry.

Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft's mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. In 1999, Gates wrote "Business @ the Speed of Thought", a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in fundamentally new ways. The book was published in 25 languages and is available in more than 60 countries.

In addition to his love of computers and software, Gates founded Corbis, which is developing one of the world's largest resources of visual information – a comprehensive digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe.

Gates was married on Jan. 1, 1994, to Melinda French Gates. They have three children. Gates is fond of reading, and enjoys playing golf and bridge.

Check your comprehension.

1. What is William Gates? 2. When and where was he born? 3. What are his parents? 4. Where did Bill study? 5. What programming language did he develop? 6. When did Bill Gates found Microsoft? 7. What is the main mission of Microsoft? 8. When and what book did he write? 9. What is Corbis? 10. What are Bill's hobbies?

***

7. Herbert Krömer (1144)

Herbert Krömer (born on August 25, 1928) is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1952 he received a Ph. D. in theoretical physics, with a dissertation on hot-electron effects in the then-new transistor. Thus he devoted his life to research on the physics of semiconductor devices.

He worked in a number of research laboratories in Germany and the United States and taught electrical engineering at the University of Colorado from 1968 to 1976. He focussed his semiconductor research program on the emerging compound semiconductor technology.

Krömer, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, has always preferred to work on problems that are ahead of mainstream technology. In the 1950s, he was the first to point out that advantages could be gained in various semiconductor devices by incorporating heterojunctions into the devices. Most notably, in 1963 he proposed the concept of the double-hetero-structure laser, the central concept in the field of semiconductor lasers. Krömer became an early pioneer in molecular beam epitaxy, concentrating on applying the technology to untried new materials.

In 2000, he and Zhores I. Alferov were each awarded a quarter of the Nobel Prize in Physics "for developing semiconductor hetero-structures used in high-speed and optoelectronics".

Check your comprehension.

1. What scientific degree did Herbert Krömer receive?

a) Bachelor Degree;

b) Doctor of Philosophy;

c) Doctor of Science.

2. Where does Krömer work now?

a) the University of Colorado;

b) the University of California;

c) the German University.

3. What are Krömer's scientific interests?

a) information technologies;

b) space exploration;

c) semiconductor devices.

4. Whom did Krömer share the Nobel Prize with?

a) American physicist;

b) Russian scientist;

c) German doctor.

5. What discovery did he receive the Nobel Prize for?

a) double-hetero-structure laser;

b) semiconductor hetero-structures;

c) silicon technologies.

<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
Nobel Prize Winners (1640)	\|	Chapter 12

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