Oral-History:Herbert Kroemer

About Herbert Kroemer

Herbert Kroemer was born 25 August 1928 in Weimar, Germany, and studied at the Universities of Jena and Göttingen. During the Soviet blockade of Berlin in 1948, he worked a summer job at Siemens, and escaped the Soviet Zone to go to the West. After obtaining his PhD, Kroemer worked at house physicist at Central Communications Lab, where he got the idea for heterostructure bipolar transistors. After spending three years at RCA labs, he returned to Germany to head Phillips Semiconductor Group, working on gallium arsenide technology in 1957. Returning to the United States, he worked at Varian Associates, and studied the Gunn effect. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000. In 1968 went to University of Colorado, and in 1975 to University of California Santa Barbara.

About the Interview

HERBERT KROEMER

An Interview Conducted by

John Vardalas

IEEE History Center

12 February 2003

Interview #424

For the

IEEE History Center
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.

and

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Copyright Statement

This manuscript is being made available for research purposes only. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the IEEE History Center. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of IEEE History Center.

Request for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the IEEE History Center Oral History Program, Rutgers - the State University, 39 Union Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8538 USA. It should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user.

It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows:
Herbert Kroemer, an oral history conducted in 2003 by John Vardalas, IEEE History Center, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.

Interview

INTERVIEWEE: Dr. Herbert Kroemer, 2000 Nobel Physics Laureate
INTERVIEWER: Dr. John Vardalas
DATE: 12 February 2003
PLACE: Dr. Kroemer's office at the University of California at Santa Barbara