Carver Mead

Professor Carver Andress Mead (born 1 May 1934, in Bakersfield, California) is a prominent U.S. computer scientist. He is the Gordon and Betty Moore professor emeritus at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), having taught there for over 40 years. Mead studied electrical engineering at Caltech, getting his B.S. in 1956, his M.S. in 1957, and his Ph.D. degree in 1960. Carver Mead and Lynn Conway co-wrote the landmark text Introduction ... more

Professor Carver Andress Mead (born 1 May 1934, in Bakersfield, California) is a prominent U.S. computer scientist. He is the Gordon and Betty Moore professor emeritus at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), having taught there for over 40 years. Mead studied electrical engineering at Caltech, getting his B.S. in 1956, his M.S. in 1957, and his Ph.D. degree in 1960. Carver Mead and Lynn Conway co-wrote the landmark text Introduction to VLSI systems in 1980, an important spearhead of the Mead & Conway revolution. A pioneering and well-written textbook, it has been used in VLSI integrated circuit education all over the world for decades. Mead is credited by Intel's (at that time Fairchild Semiconductor's) Gordon Moore of coining the term Moore's Law, denoting the observation/prediction Moore did in 1965 about the growth rate of the transistor amount fitting on a single integrated circuit. In relation to his 2002 award with the National Medal of Technology, his biography at... less