36 Facts About Jay Last

Jay Taylor Last was an American physicist, silicon pioneer, and member of the so-called "traitorous eight" that founded Silicon Valley.

Jay Last enjoyed hiking, walking, and exploring while growing up.

Jay Last was encouraged by his chemistry teacher, Lucille Critchlow, who recommended him to work with Frank W Preston, a local industrial chemist whose laboratory studied glass and glass fracture.

Jay Last began working at Preston's lab as a high-school student and continued to work for him as a university student, whenever he had a break.

Jay Last graduated from Butler Senior High School in 1947 and applied for a scholarship to study Optics at the University of Rochester.

Jay Last had heard about the program from his father and did not apply anywhere else.

Jay Last worked for a summer at the trouble-shooting department of Kodak's optical instrumentation plant, before his senior year of university.

Jay Last earned his bachelor's degree in Optics from the University of Rochester in 1951.

Jay Last had become increasingly interested in physics, and was encouraged by an advisor, Parker Givens, to become involved in the emerging area of solid-state physics.

Jay Last took classes from John Clarke Slater and Victor F Weisskopf.

Jay Last used a new instrument, a Beckman IR-3 spectrophotometer, and worked closely with staff from Beckman Instruments to report and fix problems.

Jay Last was attracted by the west coast, which he had visited as a student.

Shockley flew out to MIT to recruit Jay Last, and made a vivid impression.

Jay Last worked at the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory division of Beckman Instruments from April 1956 to September 1957.

Jay Last spent much of his time working on basic surface properties of materials, trying to explain anomalous results from four-layer silicon diodes.

In January 1957, a group of seven employees, including Jay Last, appealed to Arnold Beckman to ask that he intervene in the company's operations.

At Fairchild Semiconductor Jay Last worked as Head of Integrated Circuit Development and was instrumental in the creation of the first silicon circuit chips.

Jay Last emphasized the collaborative nature of the new company and the cooperative nature of the group working together as equals.

Jay Last helped to design a step-and-repeat camera to make photomasks and a method for aligning the masks.

Jay Last presented a novel adaptation of silicon manufacturing processes that had originated at Bell Labs.

However, outside Jay Last's working group, there was considerable resistance to the integrated circuits project at Fairchild.

Once again, Jay Last was in the position of resigning from one company so that he could develop new technology in another company.

From 1961 to 1966 Jay Last served as Director of Research and Development at Amelco.

Jay Last insisted on staying in the area that became Silicon Valley, because it was developing the necessary infrastructure for obtaining materials, equipment and personnel.

Again, in choosing to stay in California, Jay Last was a pioneer in creating Silicon Valley.

From 1966 to 1974 Jay Last served as Vice President of Research and Development for Teledyne, moving to Los Angeles, California to work more closely with George Roberts.

Jay Last's role became one of higher level oversight and trouble-shooting, reviewing the technological capabilities and viability of various companies within Teledyne.

Jay Last appeared on the PBS documentary series American Experience in the episode titled "Silicon Valley", which debuted on February 6,2013.

Jay Last talked about the day that William Shockley showed up in Jay Last's laboratory at MIT and offered him a job at his company.

Jay Last has become a well-known collector, scholar of the history of lithography, and author.

Jay Last authored or co-authored a number of art books, including The Color Explosion: Nineteenth-Century American Lithography, which won the 2007 Newman Award for the outstanding book of the year dealing with print studies from the American Historical Print Collectors Society.

In 1989, Jay Last founded The Archaeological Conservancy, which has preserved and protected nearly 500 archeological sites in 44 US states.

Jay Last became interested in Africa and African art after visiting the Museum of Primitive Art in New York in the 1950s.

Jay Last became a significant collector, specializing in art from West and Central Africa, particularly works of the Lega people of Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Jay Last said of his interest in the Lega people and their artwork:.

Jay Last died in Los Angeles on November 11,2021, less than a month after his 92nd birthday.