Carver Mead: Looking to the Future

By Daryn Kobata

Even within information technology, a discipline known for its forward thinking, Carver Mead (BS '56, PhD '60) is considered a visionary—someone who's always imagining the future.

Before Silicon Valley had a name, Mead, Caltech's Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Emeritus, had become a key player in the mushrooming semiconductor industry. A pioneering designer of transistors, microchips, and integrated circuits, he developed the MESFET, an integral component in wireless communications, the Internet, computer animation, and microchip design. In 1980 he coauthored Introduction to VLSI Systems, a text that has been a mainstay of engineering education for years.

Later, his interests turned to computation and neural systems, and he collaborated with John Hopfield and Richard Feynman to examine how animal brains process and consolidate information. He went on to apply this work to the development of new human-machine interface technologies, including a silicon retina and a cochlear chip modeled after human hearing. He has founded upwards of 20 companies, received more than 50 patents, and been awarded the National Medal of Technology, the National Academy of Engineering Founders Award, and the Lemelson-MIT Prize.

Mead is quick to point out that his extraordinarily fruitful career had its roots in his undergrad years, during the "Golden Age" of Caltech. "I came here at the right time," he says. "I had Linus Pauling for freshman chemistry, Dick Feynman for mathematical physics in my junior year, Bob Sharp for freshman geology. It was a fabulous experience."

Growing up in Central California's "backwoods," Mead says, he didn't know much about universities. "My folks thought I'd go to Fresno State." A colleague at Mead's radio station job, however, convinced him to apply to Caltech and Stanford. He visited both, and the Institute's "very personal" atmosphere won him over.

That small-scale, personalized feeling, he believes, continues to set Caltech apart, providing a challenging but flexible and highly collegial environment for students. "It's tough, but you can find your way. You can get as much out of Caltech as you put into it-and that's what I have always loved about this place."

After finishing his PhD, Mead began teaching a transistor electronics course "inherited" from Professor David Middlebrook, who was on sabbatical. That move would extend his relationship with his alma mater into a decades-long career that perfectly fit his style.

"The great thing about Caltech-what the place is about-is understanding things all the way down to the bottom," he explains. "And that's always been an urgent felt need for me. It's just been a great intellectual home for me."

Like the great architect of applications that he is, Mead believes in finding practical and constructive ways to express his regard for Caltech. Most recently, he made the Institute a gift of securities as a charitable remainder unitrust (CRUT)-an apt choice for a forward thinker. "CRUTs are a very effective way to protect loved ones from the exigencies of life," he explains. "And as you look for a nonprofit partner to do that with, you want to set it up in such a way that after the beneficiary has passed on, the money will go to a really good purpose." Caltech was an obvious choice, with its impressive history of achieving "a huge amount of bang for their buck in terms of contribution to the world."

The affinity is mutual: this past May, the year of Mead's 50th undergraduate class reunion, the Institute presented him with the Distinguished Alumni Award, its highest honor for graduates. And despite his emeritus status, his symbiotic relationship with Caltech continues, including his role as an advisor for the Institute's recently established Information Science and Technology (IST) program.

Mead calls the multidisciplinary IST initiative a "very positive development," through which Caltech can uniquely impact the future of information technology. Again, he says, it harks back to the Institute's pursuit of fundamental knowledge, which "plays particularly well when you don't separate the science from the technology."

What else is on the horizon for Mead? He envisions staying busy, especially through contacts with former students. "I've had some fabulous students, and many of them would like to continue collaborating, and so I'm putting a lot of time into that." He's also pursuing more of his own interests, including astronomy. "Right now there's explosive development in the observational tools and techniques and the whole conceptualization of the early universe, and all that is just fascinating."

Always, for Mead, it comes back to the technology. "In every scientific discipline, you can't separate the technology from the science," he says. "You can't get understanding just doing theory as an end in itself. You have to do real things. In the end, the real world offers us the only source of new understanding."

For more information about the Information Science and Technology initiative, please contact Brian Murphy at 626-395-6349