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Homeschooled Physics Nobel Prize Winner

Without Dr. Boyle, there would be no digital photography

The 2009 Nobel Prize Winners were announced recently, and includes a homeschooled Physics Nobel Prize Winner: Dr. Willard S. Boyle. He received the prize principally for the invention of the Charged Coupled Device (CCD) that captures digital images used in digital cameras and cellular/handheld phones, as well as numerous other applications such as the Hubble Telescope.

Dr. Boyle was born in 1924 In Nova Scotia Canada, where he was homescholed by his mother up to ninth grade. He studied at Lower Canada College in Montreal, and graduated at McGill University with his Batchelor's degree. He credits his success to his stated number one mentor: his mother who homeschooled him. After his Batchelor's degree he received: an MS, and a PhD in Physics. He was later the executive director of Communications Sciences Division, Bell Labs in New Jersey. He is described as: "Adventurous, clever, curious" on the candian science website: www.science.ca

He received the Nobel prize jointly with Dr. George E. Smith, principally for inventing the Charged Coupled Device (CCD). These are used today to take digital photographs, and can be found in hand-held phones, digital cameras, as well as in telescopes such as the Hubble Telescope. The MegaPixel number we know about on digital cameras and phones, is the number of how many million pixels are on the CCD that Dr. Boyle jointly invented. Without the CCD, digitial phootograhy would not exist.

He is famously quoted as saying: "Know how to judge when to persevere and when to quit. If you’re going to do something, do it well. You don’t have to be better than everyone else, but you ought to do your personal best.”

Dr. Boyle shows the major contribution that homeschooled people can make in the world, even though we are few in number. Why not tell your friends that their digital camera wouldn't haven't been invented without the work of a homeschooled Physicist!

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