View source for William Shockley

{{Short description|American applied physicist (1910–1989)}}
{{For|his father|William Hillman Shockley}}
{{Other people}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name               = William Shockley
| image              = Shockley.jpg
| caption            = Shockley in 1956
| birth_name         = William Bradford Shockley
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1910|02|13}}
| birth_place        = [[London]], [[UKGBI]]
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1989|08|12|1910|02|13}}
| death_place        = [[Stanford, California]], US
| resting_place      = [[Alta Mesa Memorial Park]], [[Palo Alto, California]]
| nationality        = American
| education          = [[Hollywood High School]]
| alma_mater         = {{Plain list|
* [[California Institute of Technology]] ([[Bachelor of Science|BS]])
* [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])
}}
| known_for          = {{Plain list|
* [[Point-contact transistor]]
* [[Grown-junction transistor]]
}}
| party              = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| spouses            = {{Plain list|
* {{Marriage|Jean Bailey|1933|1953|end=separated}}
* {{Marriage|Emmy Lanning|1955}}
}}
| children           = 3 
| father             = [[William H. Shockley]]
| mother             = [[May Bradford]]
| awards             = {{Plain list|
* [[IRE Morris Liebmann Memorial Prize]] (1952)
* [[Comstock Prize in Physics]] (1953)
* [[Oliver E. Buckley Prize]] (1953)
* [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1956)
* [[Wilhelm Exner Medal]] (1963)
* [[Holley Medal]] (1963)
* [[IEEE Medal of Honor]] (1980)
}}
| fields             = [[Solid-state physics]]
| work_institutions  = {{Plain list|
* [[Bell Laboratories]]
* [[Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory]]
* [[Stanford University]]
}}
| thesis_title       = Electronic Bands in Sodium Chloride
| thesis_url         = https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/10879
| thesis_year        = 1936
| doctoral_advisor   = [[John C. Slater]] 
}}

'''William Bradford Shockley''' (February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) was an American [[applied physicist]]. He was the manager of a research group at [[Bell Labs]] that included [[John Bardeen]] and [[Walter Brattain]]. The three scientists were jointly awarded the 1956 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] "for their researches on [[semiconductor]]s and their discovery of the [[transistor]] effect."<ref name=Nobel1956>{{Cite web|title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1956|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1956/index.html|url-status=live|publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080914090334/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1956/index.html|archive-date=2008-09-14|access-date=2008-10-09}}</ref>

Partly as a result of Shockley's attempts to commercialize a new transistor design in the 1950s and 1960s, California's [[Silicon Valley]] became a hotbed of electronics innovation. He recruited brilliant employees, but quickly alienated them with his autocratic and erratic management; they left and founded major companies in the industry.<ref name=MM18/>

In his later life, while a professor of electrical engineering at [[Stanford University]] and afterward, Shockley became known as a [[Racism|racist]] and [[Eugenics|eugenicist]].<ref name="latimesobit" /><ref name="NYTimesobit" /><ref name="PhysicsTodayobit" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |date=December 26, 1987 |title=Inventors of the transistor followed diverse paths after 1947 discovery |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nqlJAAAAIBAJ&pg=4602,1428735 |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=Bangor Daily News |publisher=Associated Press |quote=Although he has received less publicity in recent years, his views have become, if anything, more extreme. He suggested in an interview the possibility of bonus payments to black people for undergoing voluntary sterilization.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Palo Alto History|url=http://www.paloaltohistory.org/william-shockley.php|access-date=October 7, 2024|website=www.paloaltohistory.org|quote=His views became increasingly controversial, as he asserted that darker races were mentally inferior to whites and that ghetto blacks were “downbreeding” humanity. He became a firm proponent of eugenics: the belief that targeted breeding could lead to improvements in the human race.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thorp |first=H. Holden |date=2022-11-18 |title=Shockley was a racist and eugenicist |journal=Science |language=en |volume=378 |issue=6621 |pages=683 |doi=10.1126/science.adf8117 |pmid=36395223 |bibcode=2022Sci...378..683T |s2cid=253582584 |issn=0036-8075|doi-access=free }}</ref>
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== Early life and education ==
William Bradford Shockley was born on February 13, 1910, in [[London]] to American parents, and was raised in the family's hometown of [[Palo Alto, California]], from the age of 3.<ref name="IREProceedings1952" /> His father, [[William Hillman Shockley]], was a mining engineer who speculated in mines for a living and spoke eight languages. His mother, [[May Bradford]], grew up in the American West, graduated from [[Stanford University]], and became the first female U.S. deputy mining surveyor.<ref name="Shurkin2006p3" />

Shockley was homeschooled up to the age of eight, due to his parents' dislike of public schools as well as Shockley's habit of violent tantrums.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Palo Alto History|url=http://www.paloaltohistory.org/william-shockley.php|access-date=December 14, 2020|website=www.paloaltohistory.org|quote=In Palo Alto, William's temper improved little at first. But ignoring psychiatric recommendations for more socialization, his parents decided to home school William until age eight. Finally, feeling they were unable to keep him out of a school setting any longer, they sent him to the Homer Avenue School for two years, where his behavior improved dramatically --- he even earned an "A" in comportment in his first year.}}</ref> Shockley learned a little physics at a young age from a neighbor who was a Stanford physics professor.<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 10, 1974 |title=William Shockley |url=https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4889 |access-date=2022-07-17 |website=American Institute of Physics |language=en}}</ref> Shockley spent two years at [[Harker School|Palo Alto Military Academy]], then briefly enrolled in the Los Angeles Coaching School to study physics and later graduated from [[Hollywood High School]] in 1927.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url =https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-02-tm-10501-story.html|title =The Twisted Legacy of William Shockley|first =Michael A.|last =Hiltzik|website =Los Angeles Times|date =December 2, 2001}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Moll|first=John L.|url=http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/shockley-w.pdf|title=A Biographical Memoir of William Bradford Shockley|publisher=National Academies Press|year=1995|location=Washington, D.C.}}</ref>

Shockley obtained a [[B.S.]] from [[California Institute of Technology|Caltech]] in 1932 and a [[Ph.D.]] from [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]] in 1936. The title of his doctoral thesis was ''Electronic Bands in Sodium Chloride'', a topic suggested by his thesis advisor, [[John C. Slater]].<ref name="Shurkin2006pp38–39" />

== Career and research ==
Shockley was one of the first recruits to [[Bell Laboratories]] by [[Mervin Kelly]], who became director of research at the company in 1936 and focused on hiring [[Solid-state physics|solid-state]] physicists.<ref name=":5" /> Shockley joined a group headed by [[Clinton Davisson]] in [[Murray Hill, New Jersey]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cooper |first=David Y. |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1302153 |title=Shockley, William Bradford (13 February 1910–12 August 1989), physicist |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |series=American National Biography Online|doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1302153 }}</ref> Executives at Bell Labs had theorized that [[semiconductors]] may offer solid-state alternatives to the [[vacuum tube]]s used throughout Bell's nationwide telephone system. Shockley conceived a number of designs based on copper-oxide semiconductor materials, and with [[Walter Brattain]]'s unsuccessful attempt to create a prototype in 1939.<ref name=":5">[https://www.britannica.com/technology/transistor/Innovation-at-Bell-Labs Transistor – Innovation at Bell Labs] Encyclopedia Britannica</ref>

Shockley published a number of fundamental papers on solid-state physics in ''[[Physical Review]]''. In 1938, he received his first patent, "Electron Discharge Device", on [[electron multiplier]]s.<ref name="Shurkin2006p48" />[[File:William Shockley - U.S. Army maps (Bp463by2692).jpg|left|thumb|Shockley ({{em|left}}) during his years in military research]]When [[World War II]] broke out, Shockley's prior research was interrupted and he became involved in [[radar]] research in [[Manhattan]] ([[New York City]]). Also at Bell, early in 1942 Shockley did the first known pioneering applied work on [[Delay-line memory]], which was 100 times less expensive than the competing electronic memory of [[vacuum tube]] technology and approximately as rapid.  [https://www.atticusrarebooks.com/pages/books/1370/presper-j-john-adam-presper-eckert-jr-eckert-isaac-l-auerbach-robert-f-shaw-c-bradford-sheppard/mercury-delay-line-memory-with-megacycle-pulse-rate-in-proceedings-of-the-ire-37-no-8-pp-855-861] <ref>[[The Innovators (book)]], pg. 101]]</ref> This technology was incorporated inside the [[ENIAC]] computer by 1945.

In May 1942, he took leave from Bell Labs to become a research director at [[Columbia University]]'s Anti-Submarine Warfare Operations Group.<ref>''Broken Genius'' p. 65–67</ref> This involved devising methods for countering the tactics of submarines with improved [[convoy]]ing techniques, optimizing [[depth charge]] patterns, and so on. Shockley traveled frequently to [[the Pentagon]] and Washington to meet high-ranking officers and government officials.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dean Barrett |first=David |title=140 days to Hiroshima: the story of Japan's last chance to avert Armageddon |date=2020 |isbn=978-1-63576-580-9 | publisher = Diversion Books | location=New York |oclc=1149147965}}</ref>

In 1944, he organized a training program for [[B-29]] bomber pilots to use new [[radar]] bomb sights. In late 1944, he took a three-month tour to bases around the world to assess the results. For this project, Secretary of War [[Robert Porter Patterson|Robert Patterson]] awarded Shockley the [[Medal for Merit]] on October 17, 1946.<ref name="Shurkin2006p85"/> In July 1945, the [[United States Department of War|War Department]] asked Shockley to prepare a report on the question of probable casualties from an invasion of the Japanese mainland. Shockley concluded:

{{blockquote|If the study shows that the behavior of nations in all historical cases comparable to Japan's has in fact been invariably consistent with the behavior of the troops in battle, then it means that the Japanese dead and ineffectives at the time of the defeat will exceed the corresponding number for the Germans. In other words, we shall probably have to kill at least 5 to 10 million Japanese. This might cost us between 1.7 and 4 million casualties including 400,000 to 800,000 killed.<ref name="Giangreco1997" />}}

This report influenced the decision of the United States to drop [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|atomic bombs]] on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which preceded the surrender of Japan.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Robert P. |last=Newman |title=Hiroshima and the Trashing of Henry Stimson |journal=[[The New England Quarterly]] |volume=71 |issue=1 |date=1998 |page=27 |doi=10.2307/366722|jstor=366722 }}</ref>

Shockley was the first physicist to propose a [[Log-normal distribution|log-normal]] distribution to model the creation process for scientific research papers.<ref>The Artful Universe by John D. Barrow, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995, p. 239</ref>

=== Invention of the transistor ===
{{Main|History of the transistor}}
[[File:Bardeen Shockley Brattain 1948.JPG|thumb|[[John Bardeen]] (''left''), William Shockley (''center''), and [[Walter Brattain]] (''right'') at [[Bell Labs]], 1948]]

Shortly after the war ended in 1945, Bell Labs formed a solid-state physics group, led by Shockley and chemist Stanley Morgan, which included [[John Bardeen]], [[Walter Brattain]], physicist [[Gerald Pearson]], chemist Robert Gibney, electronics expert Hilbert Moore, and several technicians. Their assignment was to seek a solid-state alternative to fragile glass [[vacuum tube]] amplifiers. First attempts were based on Shockley's ideas about using an external electrical field on a semiconductor to affect its conductivity. These experiments failed every time in all sorts of configurations and materials. The group was at a standstill until Bardeen suggested a theory that invoked [[surface states]] that prevented the field from penetrating the semiconductor. The group changed its focus to study these surface states and they met almost daily to discuss the work. The group had excellent rapport and freely exchanged ideas.<ref>Brattain quoted in ''Crystal Fire'' p. 127</ref>

By the winter of 1946, they had enough results that Bardeen submitted a paper on the surface states to ''Physical Review''. Brattain started experiments to study the surface states through observations made while shining a bright light on the semiconductor's surface. This led to several more papers (one of them co-authored with Shockley), which estimated the density of the surface states to be more than enough to account for their failed experiments. The pace of the work picked up significantly when they started to surround point contacts between the semiconductor and the conducting wires with [[electrolyte]]s. Moore built a circuit that allowed them to vary the frequency of the input signal easily. Finally they began to get some evidence of power amplification when Pearson, acting on a suggestion by Shockley, put a voltage on a droplet of glycol borate placed across a [[p–n junction]].<ref name="Crystal Fire p. 132">''Crystal Fire'' p.132</ref>

Bell Labs' attorneys soon discovered Shockley's field effect principle had been anticipated and devices based on it patented in 1930 by [[Julius Lilienfeld]], who filed his [[MESFET]]-like patent in Canada on October 22, 1925.<ref>{{patent|CA|272437 |"Electric current control mechanism", first filed in Canada on October 22, 1925}}</ref><ref>[http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/lilienfeld.htm Lilienfeld] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061002065548/http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/lilienfeld.htm |date=October 2, 2006 }}</ref> Although the patent appeared "breakable" (it could not work) the patent attorneys based one of its four patent applications only on the Bardeen-Brattain point contact design. Three others (submitted first) covered the electrolyte-based transistors with Bardeen, Gibney and Brattain as the inventors.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

Shockley's name was not on any of these patent applications. This angered Shockley, who thought his name should also be on the patents because the work was based on his field effect idea. He even made efforts to have the patent written only in his name, and told Bardeen and Brattain of his intentions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/William_Shockley |title=William Shockley |work=IEEE Global History Network |publisher=IEEE |access-date=July 18, 2011}}</ref>

Shockley, angered by not being included on the patent applications, secretly continued his own work to build a different sort of transistor based on junctions instead of point contacts; he expected this kind of design would be more likely to be commercially viable. The point contact transistor, he believed, would prove to be fragile and difficult to manufacture. Shockley was also dissatisfied with certain parts of the explanation for how the point contact transistor worked and conceived of the possibility of [[minority carrier]] injection.

On February 13, 1948, another team member, [[John N. Shive]], built a point contact transistor with bronze contacts on the front and back of a thin wedge of [[germanium]], proving that [[Electron hole|holes]] could diffuse through bulk germanium and not just along the surface as previously thought.<ref name="crystal-fire">{{cite book
 | title = Crystal fire: the invention of the transistor and the birth of the information age
 | isbn = 978-0-393-31851-7
 |author1=Michael Riordan |author1-link=Michael Riordan (physicist) |author2=Lillian Hoddeson |author2-link=Lillian Hoddeson
 |name-list-style=amp | year = 1998
 | publisher = W. W. Norton & Company
 }}</ref>{{rp|153}}<ref name="True Genius">{{cite book
 |title=True genius: the life and science of John Bardeen : the only winner of two Nobel prizes in physics
 |last1=Hoddeson
 |first1=Lillian
 |last2=Daitch
 |first2=Vicki
 |date=2002
 |publisher=Joseph Henry Press
 |isbn=978-0-309-08408-6
 |url=https://archive.org/details/truegeniuslifesc0000hodd
 |access-date=December 30, 2014
 |url-access=registration
 }}
*{{cite magazine |author=Diana Buchwald |date=March–April 2003 |title=John Who? |url=http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/john-who |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102044400/http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/john-who |archive-date=2015-01-02 |magazine=American Scientist |volume=91 |number=2}}</ref>{{rp|145}} Shive's invention sparked<ref name="Brittain1984p1695" /> Shockley's invention of the junction transistor.<ref name="crystal-fire"/>{{rp|143}} A few months later he invented an entirely new, considerably more robust, type of transistor with a layer or 'sandwich' structure. This structure went on to be used for the vast majority of all transistors into the 1960s, and evolved into the bipolar junction transistor. Shockley later described the workings of the team as a "mixture of cooperation and competition". He also said that he kept some of his own work secret until his "hand was forced" by Shive's 1948 advance.<ref name=":3">{{cite news
 | title = Inventors of the transistor followed diverse paths after 1947 discovery
 | url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nqlJAAAAIBAJ&pg=4602,1428735
 | publisher = Associated press – Bangor Daily news
 | date = December 25, 1987
| access-date = May 6, 2012
| quote = 'mixture of cooperation and competition' and 'Shockley, eager to make his own contribution, said he kept some of his own work secret until "my hand was forced" in early 1948 by an advance reported by John Shive, another Bell Laboratories researcher'
}}</ref> Shockley worked out a rather complete description of what he called the "sandwich" transistor, and a first [[Proof of concept|proof of principle]] was obtained on April 7, 1949.

Meanwhile, Shockley worked on his book, ''[[Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors]]'', which was published as a 558-page treatise in 1950. The tome included Shockley's critical ideas of drift and diffusion and the differential equations that govern the flow of electrons in solid state crystals. [[Shockley diode equation|Shockley's diode equation]] is also described. This seminal work became the reference text for other scientists working to develop and improve new variants of the transistor and other devices based on semiconductors.<ref>''Broken Genius'', p 121–122</ref>

This resulted in his invention of the [[bipolar junction transistor]], which was announced at a press conference on July 4, 1951.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.computerhistory.org/semiconductor/timeline/1951-First.html|title = 1951 – First grown-junction transistors fabricated|publisher = [[Computer History Museum]]|year = 2007|access-date = July 3, 2013}}</ref>

The ensuing publicity generated by the "invention of the transistor" often thrust Shockley to the fore, much to the chagrin of Bardeen and Brattain. Bell Labs management, however, consistently presented all three inventors as a team. Though Shockley would correct the record where reporters gave him sole credit for the invention,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/transistor/album1/shockley/shockley3.html|title=Bill Shockley, Part 3 of 3|first=ScienCentral|last=ScienCentral|website=www.pbs.org}}</ref> he eventually infuriated and alienated Bardeen and Brattain, and he essentially blocked the two from working on the junction transistor. Bardeen began pursuing a theory for superconductivity and left Bell Labs in 1951. Brattain refused to work with Shockley further and was assigned to another group. Neither Bardeen nor Brattain had much to do with the development of the transistor beyond the first year after its invention.<ref>''Crystal Fire'' p. 278</ref>

Shockley left Bell Labs around 1953 and took a job at Caltech.<ref name=":4" />

=== Shockley Semiconductor ===
{{Main|Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory}}
In 1956, Shockley started [[Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory]] in [[Mountain View, California]], which was close to his elderly mother in Palo Alto, California.<ref>{{cite news |title=Holding On |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/realestate/keymagazine/406Lede-t.html?pagewanted=all |quote=In 1955, the physicist William Shockley set up a semiconductor laboratory in Mountain View, partly to be near his mother in Palo Alto. ...|newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 6, 2008 |access-date=December 7, 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Two Views of Innovation, Colliding in Washington |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EEDC153BF930A25752C0A96E9C8B63& |quote=The co-inventor of the transistor and the founder of the valley's first chip company, William Shockley, moved to Palo Alto, Calif., because his mother lived there. ...|newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=January 13, 2008 |access-date=December 7, 2014 }}</ref> The company, a division of [[Beckman Instruments]], Inc., was the first establishment working on silicon semiconductor devices in what came to be known as [[Silicon Valley]].

Shockley recruited brilliant employees to his company, but alienated them by undermining them relentlessly.<ref name=MM18>{{Cite web |first=Mike | last = Moffitt |date=2018-08-21 |title=How a racist genius created Silicon Valley by being a terrible boss |url=https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/Silicon-Valley-Shockley-racist-semiconductor-lab-13164228.php |access-date=2022-07-17 |website= [[SFGate]] | publisher = Hearst Communications | language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":9">{{Cite news |title=Electronics Pioneer William Shockley's Legacy |language=en |work=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5573656? |access-date=2022-07-17}}</ref> "He may have been the worst manager in the history of electronics", according to his biographer Joel Shurkin.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=MM18/> Shockley was autocratic, domineering, erratic, hard-to-please, and increasingly paranoid.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013 |title=Silicon Valley | work = American Experience |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/silicon/ |access-date=2022-07-10 | publisher = PBS |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":8" /> In one well-known incident, he demanded [[lie detector]] tests to find the "culprit" after a company secretary suffered a minor cut.<ref name=":8">''Crystal Fire'' p. 247</ref> In late 1957, eight of Shockley's best researchers, who would come to be known as the "[[traitorous eight]]", resigned after Shockley decided not to continue research into silicon-based semiconductors.<ref name="Goodheart2006" /><ref name=":4" /> They went on to form [[Fairchild Semiconductor]], a loss from which Shockley Semiconductor never recovered;{{citation needed|date=October 2025}} it was purchased by [[Clevite]] in 1960, then sold to [[ITT Corporation|ITT]] in 1968, and shortly after, officially closed {{citation needed|date=October 2025}}

Over the course of the next 20 years, more than 65 new enterprises would end up having employee connections back to Fairchild.<ref name="NetValley">{{cite web|url=http://www.netvalley.com/silicon_valley/Legal_Bridge_From_El_Dorado_to_Silicon_Valley.html |title=A legal bridge spanning 100 years: from the gold mines of El Dorado to the "golden" startups of Silicon Valley |author=Gregory Gromov}}</ref>

A group of about thirty colleagues have met on and off since 1956 to reminisce about their time with Shockley, "the man who brought silicon to Silicon Valley", as the group's organizer said in 2002.<ref>{{cite press release|url=http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/02/shockley1023.html|title=William Shockley: still controversial, after all these years|publisher=Stanford University|date=October 22, 2002|author=Dawn Levy|access-date=June 14, 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050404102748/http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/02/shockley1023.html|archive-date=April 4, 2005|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Racist and eugenicist views ==
{{See also|History of the race and intelligence controversy}}
After Shockley left his role as Director of Shockley Semiconductor in April 1960,<ref name=McLellan>{{cite web |last1=McLellan |first1=Paul |title=The Brief but Spectacular History of Shockley Labs |url=https://community.cadence.com/cadence_blogs_8/b/breakfast-bytes/posts/the-birthplace-of-silicon-valley |publisher=[[Cadence Labs]] |access-date=5 November 2025 |date=17 Aug 2018}}</ref> he joined [[Stanford University]], where he was appointed Alexander M. Poniatoff Professor of Engineering and Applied Science in 1963, a position he held until his retirement in 1975.<ref>''Crystal Fire'' p. 277</ref>

In the last two decades of his life, Shockley, who had no degree in [[genetics]], became widely known for his extreme views on [[Race (classification of human beings)|race]] and [[human intelligence]], and his advocacy of [[eugenics]].<ref name="latimesobit" /><ref name=":6" /> As described by his ''Los Angeles Times'' obituary, "He went from being a physicist with impeccable academic credentials to amateur geneticist, becoming a lightning rod whose views sparked campus demonstrations and a cascade of calumny." He thought his work was important to the future of humanity and he also described it as the most important aspect of his career. He argued that a higher rate of reproduction among purportedly less intelligent people was having a [[dysgenics|dysgenic]] effect, and argued that a drop in average intelligence would lead to a decline in [[civilization]]. He also claimed that [[black people]] were genetically and intellectually inferior to [[white people]].<ref name="latimesobit" />

Shockley's biographer Joel Shurkin notes that for much of Shockley's life in the [[Racial segregation in the United States|racially segregated]] United States of the time, he had almost no contact with black people.{{Sfn|Shurkin|2006|p=52}} In a debate with psychiatrist [[Frances Cress Welsing]] and on ''[[Firing Line (TV series)|Firing Line]]'' with [[William F. Buckley Jr.]], Shockley argued, "My research leads me inescapably to the opinion that the major cause of the American Negro's intellectual and social deficits is hereditary and racially genetic in origin and, thus, not remediable to a major degree by practical improvements in the environment."<ref>{{cite web|title=Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: Shockley's Thesis (Episode S0145, Recorded on June 10, 1974)|website = [[YouTube]]| date=January 27, 2017 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JOIqkh2ms8&t=3116| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211117/7JOIqkh2ms8| archive-date=2021-11-17 | url-status=live|access-date=17 September 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Shockley was one of the [[Scientific racism|race theorists]] who received money from the [[Pioneer Fund]], and at least one donation to him came from its founder, the eugenicist [[Wickliffe Draper]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Saini |first=Angela |title=Superior: the return of race science |date=2019 |isbn=978-0-8070-7694-1 | publisher = Beacon Press | location=Boston |oclc=1091236746}}</ref>{{Sfn|Shurkin|2006|p=221–223}} Shockley proposed that individuals with [[IQ]]s below 100 should be paid to undergo voluntary [[sterilization (medicine)|sterilization]], $1,000 for each of their IQ points under 100.<ref name="latimesobit">{{cite news |last1=Boyer |first1=Edward J. |date=August 14, 1989 |title=Controversial Nobel Laureate Shockley Dies |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-08-14-mn-369-story.html |access-date=May 11, 2015}}</ref> This proposal led to the [[University of Leeds]] to withdraw its offer of an honorary degree to him.<ref name="latimesobit" /> Anthropologist and far-right activist [[Roger Pearson (anthropologist)|Roger Pearson]] defended Shockley in a self-published book co-authored with Shockley.<ref>Pearson, Roger (1992). ''Shockley on Eugenics and Race'', pg.&nbsp;15–49. Scott-Townsend Publishers. {{ISBN|1-878465-03-1}}</ref> In 1973, [[University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee]] professor Edgar G. Epps argued that "William Shockley's position lends itself to racist interpretations".<ref name=":12">{{cite journal |url=http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/simpleSearch.jsp;jsessionid=OMenSuducta6igZF3Xq3pQ__.ericsrv005?newSearch=true&eric_sortField=&searchtype=keyword&pageSize=10&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ070419&eric_displayStartCount=1&_pageLabel=ERICSearchResult&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=kw |author=Epps, Edgar G |title=Racism, Science, and the I.Q. |journal=Integrated Education |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=35–44 |date=February 1973 |doi=10.1080/0020486730110105|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Southern Poverty Law Center|The Southern Poverty Law Center]] describes Shockley as a [[White nationalism|white nationalist]] who failed to produce evidence for his eugenic theories amidst "near-universal acknowledgement that his work was that of a racist crank".<ref name=":0" /> The science writer [[Angela Saini]] describes Shockley as having been "a notorious racist."<ref name=":2" />

Shockley insisted that he was not a [[Racism|racist]].<ref name=":12" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Harris |first=Art |date=1984-09-12 |title=The Shockley Suit |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/09/12/the-shockley-suit/31817b93-4807-4a16-aa3d-edd773ff9e56/ |access-date=2023-03-29 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> He wrote that his findings do not support [[white supremacy]], instead claiming that East Asians and Jews fare better than whites intellectually.<ref name=":12" /> In 1973, Edgar Epps wrote that "I am pleased that Professor Shockley is not an Aryan supremacist, but I would remind him that a theory espousing hereditary superiority of Orientals or Jews is just as racist in nature as the Aryan supremacy doctrine".<ref name=":12" />

Shockley's advocacy of eugenics triggered protests. In one incident, the science society [[Sigma Xi]], fearing violence, canceled a 1968 convocation in [[Brooklyn]] where Shockley was scheduled to speak.{{Sfn|Shurkin|2006|p=219–220}}

In Atlanta in 1981, Shockley filed a [[libel]] suit against the ''[[Atlanta Constitution]]'' after a science writer, [[Roger Witherspoon]], compared Shockley's advocacy of a voluntary sterilization program to [[Nazi human experimentation]]. The suit took three years to go to trial. Shockley won the suit but he only received [[Damages#Nominal damages|one dollar in damages]]<ref>{{cite news |first=Ronald |last=Kessler |title=Absent at the Creation; How one scientist made off with the biggest invention since the light bulb |url=http://www1.hollins.edu/faculty/richter/327/AbsentCreation.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150224230527/http://www1.hollins.edu/faculty/richter/327/AbsentCreation.htm |archive-date=February 24, 2015 }}</ref> and he did not receive any [[punitive damages]]. Shockley's biographer Joel Shurkin, a science writer on the staff of Stanford University during those years, sums this statement up by saying that it was defamatory, but Shockley's reputation was not worth much by the time the trial reached a verdict.<ref name="Shurkin2006pp259–260" /> Shockley taped his [[telephone]] conversations with reporters, transcribed them, and sent the transcripts to the reporters by registered mail. At one point, he toyed with the idea of making the reporters take a simple quiz on his work before he would discuss the subject matter of it with them. His habit of saving all of his papers (including laundry lists) provides abundant documentation on his life for researchers.<ref name="Shurkin2006p286" />

Shockley was a candidate for the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] nomination in the [[1982 United States Senate election in California]]. He ran on a [[Single-issue politics|single-issue platform]] of opposing the "dysgenic threat" that he alleged [[African Americans|African-Americans]] and other groups posed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Moll |first=John L. |date=1995 |title=William Bradford Shockley 1910—1989 |url=http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/shockley-w.pdf |website=National Academy of Sciences}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=William Shockley |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/william-shockley |website=Southern Poverty Law Center}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/12/us/shockley-nobel-winner-files-for-senate-race-in-california.html|title = Shockley, Nobel Winner, Files for Senate Race in California|newspaper = The New York Times|date = February 12, 1982}}</ref> He came in eighth place in the primary, receiving 8,308 votes and 0.37% of the vote.<ref>{{cite web |title= CA US Senate – D Primary|url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=382924|website=OurCampaigns |access-date=November 12, 2019}}</ref> According to Shurkin, by this time, "His racism destroyed his credibility. Almost no one wanted to be associated with him, and many of those who were willing did him more harm than good".{{Sfn|Shurkin|2006|p=268}}

===Foundation for Research and Education on Eugenics and Dysgenics===
'''Foundation for Research and Education on Eugenics and Dysgenics''' '''(FREED)''' was a [[Nonprofit organization|non-profit organization]] founded in March 1970 in the United States formed to support the research of Shockley, who was the president of the foundation and [[R. Travis Osborne]], a member.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1985-03-28 |title=The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/419333630/ |access-date=2024-02-08 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Shurkin |first=Joel N. |date=2008 |title=Broken Genius |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-0-230-55229-6  |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-0-230-55229-6|isbn=978-0-230-55192-3 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Tucker 1994">{{Cite book |last=Tucker |first=William H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OBsHSzmkYHkC |title=The Science and Politics of Racial Research |date=1994 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-06560-6 |language=en}}</ref> The foundation released newsletter 'FREED' and research papers at [[Stanford University]].

The organization was founded according to its mission "solely for scientific and educational purposes related to human population and quality problems".<ref name="Tucker 1994" />

From 1969 to 1976, the [[Pioneer Fund]] allocated about $2.5 million ([[adjusted-for-inflation]] in 2023) to support Shockley's endeavors. This funding was distributed through grants to [[Stanford University]] for the exploration of "research into the factors which affect genetic potential" and also directly to FREED.<ref name="fighting-hate/extremist">{{Cite web |title=William Shockley |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/william-shockley |access-date=2024-02-08 |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Lichtenstein |first=Grace |date=11 Dec 1977 |title=Fund Backs Controversial Study of 'Racial Betterment' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/11/archives/fund-backs-controversial-study-of-racial-betterment-some-others-who.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

Via FREED, Shockley promoted his concept of a "Voluntary Sterilization Bonus Plan", proposing to compensate [[economically disadvantaged]] women for undergoing [[Sterilization (medicine)|sterilization]] procedures.<ref name="fighting-hate/extremist" />

In 1970, Shockley listed former [[List of United States senators from Alaska|senator of Alaska]] [[Ernest Gruening]] as a director of FREED.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1970-04-29 |title=The Delta Democrat-Times from Greenville, Mississippi |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/24196312/ |access-date=2024-02-08 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
At age 23 and while still a student, Shockley married Jean Bailey in August 1933. The couple had two sons and a daughter.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/btshoc.html A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries: William Shockley] PBS</ref> Shockley separated from her in 1953.<ref name=":4" /> He married Emily Lanning, a psychiatric nurse, in 1955; she helped him with some of his theories.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hoddeson |first1=Lillian | first2=Vicki | last2= Daitch |title=True genius: the life and science of John Bardeen: the only winner of two Nobel Prizes in physics |date=2002 | isbn=0-309-16954-2 |location=Washington, DC | publisher = Joseph Henry Press |oclc=1162253791}}</ref> Although one of his sons earned a PhD at Stanford University and his daughter graduated from Radcliffe College, Shockley believed his children "represent a very significant regression ... my first wife – their mother – had not as high an academic-achievement standing as I had".<ref name=latimesobit/>

Shockley was an accomplished rock climber, going often to the [[Shawangunk Ridge|Shawangunks]] in the [[Hudson Valley|Hudson River Valley]]. His 1953 route known as "Shockley's Ceiling", is one of the classic climbing routes in the area.<ref name="Crystal Fire p. 132"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105799687/shockleys-ceiling |title=Shockley's Ceiling  |website=[[Mountain Project]] |access-date=December 12, 2018}}
</ref> [[Mountain Project]], a web-based [[climbing guidebook]], reports that the route's name has been changed to "The Ceiling" due to Shockley's eugenics controversies.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Rock Climb The Ceiling, The Gunks|url=https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105799687/the-ceiling|access-date=September 16, 2020|website=Mountain Project}}</ref> A 1996 guidebook notes that the original party on this route avoided the ceiling in question. The guidebook lists this variation as ""Shockley's Without." He was popular as a speaker, lecturer, and amateur magician. He once "magically" produced a bouquet of roses at the end of his address before the [[American Physical Society]].

Shockley was also known in his early years for elaborate practical jokes.<ref>''Crystal Fire'' p. 45</ref> He had a longtime hobby of raising [[Ant colony|ant colonies]].<ref name=":1" />

Shockley [[donated sperm]] to the [[Repository for Germinal Choice]], a [[sperm bank]] founded by [[Robert Klark Graham]] in hopes of spreading humanity's best [[gene]]s. The bank, called by the media the "Nobel Prize sperm bank", claimed to have three Nobel Prize-winning donors, though Shockley was the only one to publicly acknowledge his involvement.<ref>{{cite news | newspaper=The Daily Register | date=September 19, 1982 | page=47 | title='Banker's' assets misdirected | last=Kulman | first=Doris | quote=According to the bank's owner-operator, California millionaire Robert T. Graham, three Nobel Prize-winning scientists are among those who have sperm on deposit. | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120466259/repository-for-germinal-choice-three/}}</ref> However, Shockley's controversial views brought the Repository for Germinal Choice a degree of notoriety and may have discouraged other Nobel Prize winners from donating sperm.<ref>{{cite news |author=Polly Morrice |title=The Genius Factory: Test-Tube Superbabies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/03/books/review/03MORRICE.html?ei=5088&en=859598b50aab62e1&ex=1278043200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all# |work=The New York Times |date=July 3, 2005 |access-date=February 12, 2008}}</ref>

Shockley was unhappy in his life and was often [[psychological abuse|psychologically]] and sometimes [[physical abuse|physically abusive]] toward his sons.<ref>''Broken Genius'' p. 91–92</ref> On one occasion, he reportedly played [[Russian roulette]] on himself as part of a [[suicide attempt]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=1999 |title=Transistorized! William Shockley |url=https://www.pbs.org/transistor/album1/shockley/shockley2.html |access-date=2022-07-10 |website=www.pbs.org}}</ref><ref>''Broken Genius'' pp. 78</ref>

Shockley died of [[prostate cancer]] on August 12, 1989, in [[Stanford, California]], at the age of 79.<ref name="obit">{{cite news|date=August 14, 1989|title=William B. Shockley, 79, Creator of Transistor and Theory on Race|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0213.html|url-status=dead|access-date=July 21, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015051326/https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0213.html|archive-date=October 15, 2009|quote=He drew further scorn when he proposed financial rewards for the ''genetically disadvantaged'' if they volunteered for [[Sterilization (medicine)|sterilization]].}}</ref> At the time of his death, he was estranged from most of his friends and family, except his second wife, the former Emmy Lanning (1913–2007). His children reportedly learned of his death by reading his obituary in the newspaper.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/transistor/album1/shockley/shockley3.html |access-date=January 1, 2015 |title=William Shockley (Part 3 of 3): Confusion over Credit |website=[[PBS]] |date=1999}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=February 2024}} He is buried at [[Alta Mesa Memorial Park]] in Palo Alto, California.

== Recognition ==
=== Memberships ===
{| class="wikitable"
! Country
! Year
! Institute
! Type
! Section
! {{Reference column heading}}
|-
| {{Flag|United States|1912}}
| 1951
| [[National Academy of Sciences]]
| [[Member of the National Academy of Sciences|Member]]
| Engineering Sciences
| <ref>{{Cite web|title=W. Shockley|url=https://www.nasonline.org/directory-entry/w-shockley-71evbg/|url-status=live|publisher=[[National Academy of Sciences]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250908193545/https://www.nasonline.org/directory-entry/w-shockley-71evbg/|archive-date=2025-09-08|access-date=2025-11-05}}</ref>
|}

=== Awards ===
{| class="wikitable"
! Country
! Year
! Institute
! Award
! Citation
! {{Reference column heading}}
|-
| {{Flag|United States|1912}}
| 1952
| [[Institute of Radio Engineers]]
| [[IRE Morris Liebmann Memorial Prize]]
| "In recognition of his contributions to the creation and development of the transistor"
| <ref>{{Cite web|title=IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award Recipients|url=http://www.ieee.org/documents/liebmann_rl.pdf|url-status=dead|publisher=[[IEEE]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303211541/http://www.ieee.org/documents/liebmann_rl.pdf|archive-date=2016-03-03|access-date=2011-02-27}}</ref>
|-
| {{Flag|United States|1912}}
| 1953
| [[National Academy of Sciences]]
| [[Comstock Prize in Physics]]
| "For his pioneering investigations and exposition of electric and magnetic properties of solid materials; in particular for his researches in the conduction of electricity by electrons and holes in semiconductors"
| <ref>{{Cite web|title=Comstock Prize in Physics|url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_comstock|url-status=dead|publisher=[[National Academy of Sciences]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229195326/http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_comstock|archive-date=2010-12-29|access-date=2011-02-13}}</ref>
|-
| {{Flag|United States|1912}}
| 1953
| [[American Physical Society]]
| [[Oliver E. Buckley Prize]]
| "For contributions to the physics of semiconductors"
| <ref>{{Cite web |title=Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize |url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/buckley.cfm|website=www.aps.org|access-date=2022-05-03}}</ref>
|-
| {{Flag|Sweden}}
| 1956
| [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]
| [[Nobel Prize in Physics]]
| "For their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect" (with [[John Bardeen]] and [[Walter Brattain]])
| <ref name=Nobel1956/>
|-
| {{Flag|Austria}}
| 1963
| Austrian Trade Association
| [[Wilhelm Exner Medal]]
|
| <ref>{{Cite web|title=William Shockley|url=https://www.wilhelmexner.org/en/medalists/william-shockley/|url-status=live|publisher=Austrian Trade Association|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241207210849/https://www.wilhelmexner.org/en/medalists/william-shockley/|archive-date=2024-12-07|access-date=2025-11-05}}</ref>
|-
| {{Flag|United States}}
| 1963
| [[ASME]]
| [[Holley Medal]]
|
| <ref>{{Cite web|title=Holley Medal|url=https://www.asme.org/about-asme/honors-awards/achievement-awards/holley-medal|url-status=live|publisher=[[ASME]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250814211139/https://www.asme.org/about-asme/honors-awards/achievement-awards/holley-medal|archive-date=2025-08-14|access-date=2025-11-05 }}</ref>
|-
| {{Flag|United States}}
| 1980
| [[IEEE]]
| [[IEEE Medal of Honor]]
| "For the invention of the junction transistor, the analog and the junction field-effect transistor, and the theory underlying their operation"
| <ref>{{Cite web|title=William Shockley|url=https://corporate-awards.ieee.org/recipient/william-shockley/|url-status=live|publisher=[[IEEE]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231201075830/https://corporate-awards.ieee.org/recipient/william-shockley/|archive-date=2023-12-01|access-date=2024-05-13}}</ref>
|}

== Patents ==
Shockley was granted over 90 US patents.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Google Patents assignee:(Shockley William)|url=https://patents.google.com/?assignee=Shockley+William|access-date=December 12, 2020|website=patents.google.com}}</ref> Some notable ones are:
* {{patent|US|2502488|''Semiconductor Amplifier''.}} April 4, 1950; his first granted patent involving transistors.
* {{patent|US|2569347|''Circuit element utilizing semiconductive material''. }} September 25, 1951; His earliest applied for (June 26, 1948) patent involving transistors.
* {{patent|US|2655609|''Bistable Circuits''.}} October 13, 1953; Used in computers.
* {{patent|US|2787564|''Forming Semiconductive Devices by Ionic Bombardment''.}} April 2, 1957; The diffusion process for implantation of impurities.
* {{patent|US|3031275|''Process for Growing Single Crystals''.}} April 24, 1962; Improvements on process for production of basic materials.
* {{patent|US|3053635|''Method of Growing Silicon Carbide Crystals''.}} September 11, 1962; Exploring other semiconductors.

== Publications ==
=== Prewar scientific articles by Shockley ===
* {{cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=R. P. |last2=Shockley |first2=W. |title=An Electron Microscope for Filaments: Emission and Adsorption by Tungsten Single Crystals |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_physical-review_1936-03-15_49_6/page/436 |journal=Physical Review |publisher=American Physical Society (APS) |volume=49 |issue=6 |date=March 15, 1936 |issn=0031-899X |doi=10.1103/physrev.49.436 |pages=436–440 |bibcode=1936PhRv...49..436J}}
* {{cite journal | last1=Slater | first1=J. C. | last2=Shockley | first2=W. | title=Optical Absorption by the Alkali Halides | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_physical-review_1936-10-15_50_8/page/704 | journal=Physical Review | publisher=American Physical Society (APS) | volume=50 | issue=8 | date=October 15, 1936 | issn=0031-899X | doi=10.1103/physrev.50.705 | pages=705–719| bibcode=1936PhRv...50..705S }}
* {{cite journal | last=Shockley | first=William | title=Electronic Energy Bands in Sodium Chloride | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_physical-review_1936-10-15_50_8/page/754 | journal=Physical Review | publisher=American Physical Society (APS) | volume=50 | issue=8 | date=October 15, 1936 | issn=0031-899X | doi=10.1103/physrev.50.754 | pages=754–759| bibcode=1936PhRv...50..754S }}
* {{cite journal | last=Shockley | first=W. | title=The Empty Lattice Test of the Cellular Method in Solids | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_physical-review_1937-10-15_52_8/page/866 | journal=Physical Review | publisher=American Physical Society (APS) | volume=52 | issue=8 | date=October 15, 1937 | issn=0031-899X | doi=10.1103/physrev.52.866 | pages=866–872| bibcode=1937PhRv...52..866S }}
* {{cite journal | last=Shockley | first=William | title=On the Surface States Associated with a Periodic Potential | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_physical-review_1939-08-15_56_4/page/316 | journal=Physical Review | publisher=American Physical Society (APS) | volume=56 | issue=4 | date=August 15, 1939 | issn=0031-899X | doi=10.1103/physrev.56.317 | pages=317–323| bibcode=1939PhRv...56..317S }}
* {{cite journal | last1=Steigman | first1=J. | last2=Shockley | first2=W. | last3=Nix | first3=F. C. | title=The Self-Diffusion of Copper | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_physical-review_1939-07-01_56_1/page/12 | journal=Physical Review | publisher=American Physical Society (APS) | volume=56 | issue=1 | date=July 1, 1939 | issn=0031-899X | doi=10.1103/physrev.56.13 | pages=13–21| bibcode=1939PhRv...56...13S }}

=== Postwar articles ===
* {{cite journal | last=Shockley | first=W. | title=The Theory of p-n Junctions in Semiconductors and p-n Junction Transistors | journal=Bell System Technical Journal | publisher=Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) | volume=28 | issue=3 | year=1949 | issn=0005-8580 | doi=10.1002/j.1538-7305.1949.tb03645.x | pages=435–489 | bibcode=1949BSTJ...28..435S }}
* {{cite journal | last1=Shockley | first1=W. | last2=Pearson | first2=G. L. | last3=Haynes | first3=J. R. | title=Hole Injection in Germanium-Quantitative Studies and Filamentary Transistors | journal=Bell System Technical Journal | publisher=Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) | volume=28 | issue=3 | year=1949 | issn=0005-8580 | doi=10.1002/j.1538-7305.1949.tb03641.x | pages=344–366 | bibcode=1949BSTJ...28..344S }}
* {{cite journal | last=Shockley | first=W. | title=Hot Electrons in Germanium and Ohm's Law | journal=Bell System Technical Journal | publisher=Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) | volume=30 | issue=4 | year=1951 | issn=0005-8580 | doi=10.1002/j.1538-7305.1951.tb03692.x | pages=990–1034}}
* {{cite journal | last=Shockley | first=W. | title=Negative Resistance Arising from Transit Time in Semiconductor Diodes | journal=Bell System Technical Journal | publisher=Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) | volume=33 | issue=4 | year=1954 | issn=0005-8580 | doi=10.1002/j.1538-7305.1954.tb03742.x | pages=799–826 | bibcode=1954BSTJ...33..799S }}
* {{cite journal | last1=Sze | first1=S. M. | last2=Shockley | first2=W. | title=Unit-Cube Expression for Space-Charge Resistance | journal=Bell System Technical Journal | publisher=Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) | volume=46 | issue=5 | date=May 6, 1967 | issn=0005-8580 | doi=10.1002/j.1538-7305.1967.tb01716.x | pages=837–842 | bibcode=1967BSTJ...46..837S }}
* [https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/1957-shockley.pdf "On the Statistics of Individual Variations of Productivity in Research Laboratories"], Shockley 1957
* On [[heredity]], [[dysgenics]] and social issues:
** Shockley 1965, "Is Quality of US Population Declining." U.S. News & World Report, November 22, pp.&nbsp;68–71
** Shockley 1966, [https://www.gwern.net/docs/genetics/heritable/1966-shockley.pdf "Possible Transfer of Metallurgical and Astronomical Approaches to Problem of Environment versus Ethnic Heredity"] (on an early form of [[genetic admixture|admixture analysis]])
** Shockley 1966, "Population Control or Eugenics." In J. D. Roslansky (ed.), ''Genetics and the Future of Man'' (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts)
** Shockley 1967, "The Entrenched Dogmatism of Inverted Liberals", manuscript by Shockley from which major portions were read in lectures
** Shockley 1968, "Proposed Research to Reduce Racial Aspects of the Environment-Heredity Uncertainty", proposal read by Shockley before the National Academy of Science on April 24, 1968
** Shockley 1968, "Ten Point Position Statement on Human Quality Problems", revised by Shockley from a talk which he presented on "Human Quality Problems and Research Taboos" 
** Shockley 1969, "An Analysis Leading to a Recommendation Concerning Inquiry into Eugenic Legislation", press release by Shockley, Stanford University, April 28, 1969
** Shockley 1970, "A 'Try Simplest Cases' Approach to the Heredity-Poverty-Crime Problem." In V. L. Allen (ed.), ''Psychological Factors in Poverty'' (Chicago: Markham)
** Shockley 1979, "Proposed NAS Resolution, drafted October 17, 1970", proposed by Shockley before the National Academy of Sciences
** Shockley 1970, [https://www.gwern.net/docs/genetics/selection/1970-shockley.pdf "New Methodology to Reduce the Environment-Heredity Uncertainty About Dysgenics"]
** Shockley 1971, [https://www.gwern.net/docs/genetics/selection/1971-shockley.pdf "Hardy-Weinberg Law Generalized to Estimate Hybrid Variance for Negro Populations and Reduce Racial Aspects of the Environment-Heredity Uncertainty"]
** Shockley 1971, "Dysgenics – A Social Problem Evaded by the Illusion of Infinite Plasticity of Human Intelligence?", manuscript planned for reading at the American Psychological Association Symposium entitled: "Social Problems: Illusion, Delusion or Reality."
** "Models, Mathematics, and the Moral Obligation to Diagnose the Origin of Negro IQ Deficits", W. Shockley, (1971) <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shockley|first=William|date=1971|title=Models, Mathematics, and the Moral Obligation to Diagnose the Origin of Negro IQ Deficits|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1169443|journal=Review of Educational Research|volume=41|issue=4|pages=369–377|doi=10.3102/00346543041004369 |jstor=1169443|issn=0034-6543|url-access=subscription}}</ref> 
** [https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/1971-shockley.pdf "Negro IQ Deficit: Failure of a 'Malicious Coincidence' Model Warrants New Research Proposals"], Shockley 1971<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shockley|first=William|date=1971|title=Negro IQ Deficit: Failure of a "Malicious Coincidence" Model Warrants New Research Proposals|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1169529|journal=Review of Educational Research|volume=41|issue=3|pages=227–248|doi=10.2307/1169529|jstor=1169529|issn=0034-6543|url-access=subscription}}</ref> 
** [https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/1972-shockley.pdf "Dysgenics, Geneticity, Raceology: A Challenge to the Intellectual Responsibility of Educators"], Shockley 1972a<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Shockley|first1=Wiliam|last2=Shockley|first2=William|date=1972|title=Dysgenics, Geneticity, Raceology: A Challenge to the Intellectual Responsibility of Educators|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20373194|journal=The Phi Delta Kappan|volume=53|issue=5|pages=297–307|jstor=20373194|issn=0031-7217}}</ref> 
** [https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/1972-shockley-2.pdf "A Debate Challenge: Geneticity Is 80% for White Identical Twins' I.Q.'s"], Shockley 1972b<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shockley|first=William|date=1972|title=A Debate Challenge: Geneticity Is 80% for White Identical Twins' I.Q.'s|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20373251|journal=The Phi Delta Kappan|volume=53|issue=7|pages=415–419|jstor=20373251|issn=0031-7217}}</ref>
** Shockley 1972, "Proposed Resolution Regarding the 80% Geneticity Estimate for Caucasian IQ", advance press release concerning a paper presented by Shockley
** Shockley 1973, "Deviations from Hardy-Weinberg Frequencies Caused by Assortative Mating in Hybrid Populations"<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shockley|first=William|date=1973|title=Deviations from Hardy-Weinberg Frequencies Caused by Assortative Mating in Hybrid Populations|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|volume=70|issue=3|pages=732–736|doi=10.1073/pnas.70.3.732|jstor=62346|pmid=4514986|pmc=433346|bibcode=1973PNAS...70..732S|issn=0027-8424|doi-access=free}}</ref>
** Shockley 1974, "Eugenic, or Anti-Dysgenic, Thinking Exercises", press release by Shockley dated 1974 May 3
** Shockley 1974, "Society Has a Moral Obligation to Diagnose Tragic Racial IQ Deficits", prepared statement by Shockley to be read during his debate against Roy Innis
** Shockley 1978, "Has Intellectual Humanitarianism Gone Berserk?", introductory statement read by Shockley prior to a lecture given by him at UT Dallas
** Shockley 1979, "Anthropological Taboos About Determinations of Racial Mixes", press release by Shockley on October 16, 1979
** Shockley 1980, "Sperm Banks and Dark-Ages Dogmatism", position paper presented by Shockley in a lecture to the Rotary Club of Chico, California, April 16, 1980
** Shockley 1981, "Intelligence in Trouble", article by Shockley published in Leaders magazine, issue dated 1981 June 15

=== Books ===
* Shockley, William – ''[[Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors with Applications to Transistor Electronics]]'', Krieger (1956) {{ISBN|0-88275-382-7}}
* Shockley, William and Gong, Walter A – ''Mechanics'' Charles E. Merrill, Inc. (1966)
* Shockley, William and Pearson, Roger – [https://www.gwern.net/docs/genetics/selection/1992-pearson-shockleyoneugenicsandrace.djvu ''Shockley on Eugenics and Race: The Application of Science to the Solution of Human Problems''], Scott-Townsend (1992) {{ISBN|1-878465-03-1}}

=== Interviews ===
* [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4889 Interview of William Shockley by Lillian Hoddeson on 1974 Sep. 10, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA]
* ''Playboy'' 1980, [https://www.gwern.net/docs/genetics/heritable/1980-shockley.djvu William Shockley interview with ''Playboy'']

== Notes ==
=== Citations ===
<!-- This article uses the citation templates described in [[User:RexxS/Cite_multiple_pages]]. Thank you to RexxS for the detailed tips. -->
{{reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name="NYTimesobit">{{Harvnb |Saxon|1989|loc=}}</ref>
<ref name="PhysicsTodayobit">{{Harvnb |Sparks|Hogan|Linville|1991|pages=130–132 }}</ref>
<ref name="IREProceedings1952">{{cite journal|doi=10.1109/JRPROC.1952.274003|journal=Proceedings of the IRE|volume=40|issue=11|pages=1605–1612|year=1952 |title=Contributors to Proceedings of the I.R.E. |bibcode=1952PIRE...40.1605. }}</ref>
<ref name="Shurkin2006p3">{{Harvnb |Shurkin|2006|page=5}}</ref>
<ref name="Shurkin2006pp38–39">{{Harvnb |Shurkin|2006|pages=38–39}}</ref>
<ref name="Shurkin2006p48">{{Harvnb |Shurkin|2006|page=48}}</ref>
<ref name="Shurkin2006p85">{{Harvnb |Shurkin|2006|page=85}}</ref>
<ref name="Giangreco1997">{{Harvnb |Giangreco|1997|page=568}}</ref>
<ref name="Brittain1984p1695">{{Harvnb |Brittain|1984|page=1695}} "an observation that William Shockley interpreted as confirmation of his concept of that junction transistor"</ref>
<ref name="Goodheart2006">{{Harvnb |Goodheart|2006}} "Fed up with their boss, eight lab workers walked off the job on this day in Mountain View, Calif. Their employer, William Shockley, had decided not to continue research into silicon-based semiconductors; frustrated, they decided to undertake the work on their own. The researchers — who would become known as 'the traitorous eight' — went on to invent the microprocessor (and to found Intel, among other companies).</ref>
<ref name="Shurkin2006pp259–260">{{Harvnb |Shurkin|2006|pages=259–260 "Essentially, the jury agreed that Witherspoon's column met the standards of defamation, but that by then, Shockley's reputation wasn't worth very much."}}</ref>
<ref name="Shurkin2006p286">{{Harvnb |Shurkin|2006|page=286}}</ref>
}}

=== Other notes ===
* <!--<ref name="ParkLubinskiBenbow2010">-->{{Harvnb |Park|Lubinski|Benbow|2010|loc="[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=recognizing-spatial-intel There were two young boys, Luis Alvarez and William Shockley, who were among the many who took Terman's tests but missed the cutoff score. Despite their exclusion from a study of young 'geniuses,' both went on to study physics, earn PhDs, and win the Nobel prize.]"}}<!--</ref>-->
* <!--<ref name="Leslie2000">-->{{Harvnb |Leslie|2000|loc="[http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=40678 We also know that two children who were tested but ''didn't'' make the cut – William Shockley and Luis Alvarez – went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. According to Hastorf, none of the Terman kids ever won a Nobel or Pulitzer.]"}}<!--</ref>-->
* <!--<ref name="Shurkin2006p13">-->{{Harvnb |Shurkin|2006|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=cRb_qzEwWWAC&pg=PA13 13] (See also "[http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/beautiful-minds/200909/the-truth-about-the-termites The Truth About the 'Termites']" Kaufman, S. B. 2009)}}<!--</ref>-->
* <!--<ref name="Simonton1999p4">-->{{Harvnb |Simonton|1999|page=[https://archive.org/details/originsofgeniusd00simo/page/4 4] "When Terman first used the IQ test to select a sample of child geniuses, he unknowingly excluded a special child whose IQ did not make the grade. Yet a few decades later that talent received the Nobel Prize in physics: William Shockley, the cocreator of the transistor. Ironically, not one of the more than 1,500 children who qualified according to his IQ criterion received so high an honor as adults."}}<!--</ref>-->
* <!--<ref name="Eysenck1998pp127–128">-->{{Harvnb |Eysenck|1998|pages=127–128 "Terman, who originated those 'Genetic Studies of Genius', as he called them, selected&nbsp;... children on the basis of their high IQs; the mean was 151 for both sexes. Seventy–seven who were tested with the newly translated and standardized Binet test had IQs of 170 or higher–well at or above the level of Cox's geniuses. What happened to these potential geniuses–did they revolutionize society?&nbsp;... The answer in brief is that they did very well in terms of achievement, but none reached the Nobel Prize level, let alone that of genius.&nbsp;... It seems clear that these data powerfully confirm the suspicion that intelligence is not a sufficient trait for truly creative achievement of the highest grade."}}<!--</ref>-->

== References ==
<!-- This article uses the citation templates described in [[User:RexxS/Cite_multiple_pages]]. Thank you to RexxS for the detailed tips. -->
* {{cite journal |last1=Brittain |first1=J.E. |title=Becker and Shive on the transistor |journal=Proceedings of the IEEE |volume=72 |issue=12 |year=1984 |issn=0018-9219 |doi=10.1109/PROC.1984.13075 |page=1695 |bibcode=1984IEEEP..72.1695B |s2cid=1616808 |quote=an observation that William Shockley interpreted as confirmation of his concept of that junction transistor }}
* {{cite book |last=Eysenck |first=Hans |title=Intelligence: A New Look |location=New Brunswick (NJ) |publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]] |isbn=978-0-7658-0707-6 |date=1998 }}
* {{cite journal|last1=Giangreco|first1=D. M.|s2cid=159870872|title=Casualty Projections for the U.S. Invasions of Japan, 1945-1946: Planning and Policy Implications|journal=[[Journal of Military History]] |volume=61 |issue=3 |year=1997 |pages=521–581 |issn=0899-3718 |doi=10.2307/2954035 |jstor=2954035}}
* {{cite news |last=Goodheart |first=Adam |title=10 Days That Changed History |date=July 2, 2006 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/02/weekinreview/02goodheart.html |access-date=January 2, 2015 }}
* {{cite journal |title=The Vexing Legacy of Lewis Terman |last=Leslie |first=Mitchell |date=July–August 2000 |journal=Stanford Magazine |url=http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=40678 |access-date=June 5, 2013 |archive-date=August 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210826224009/https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=40678 |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite journal |title=Recognizing Spatial Intelligence |last1=Park |first1=Gregory |last2=Lubinski |first2=David |last3=Benbow |first3=Camilla P. |date=November 2, 2010 |journal=Scientific American |url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=recognizing-spatial-intel |access-date=June 5, 2013 }}
* {{cite book |title=Broken Genius: The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age |last=Shurkin |first=Joel |date=2006 |publisher=Macmillan |location=London |isbn=978-1-4039-8815-7}}
* {{cite magazine |author=Brian Clegg |title=Review - Broken Genius - Joel Shurkin |magazine=Popular Science |url=http://www.popularscience.co.uk/reviews/rev291.htm |date=June 2, 2013 |access-date=November 13, 2010 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303173745/http://www.popularscience.co.uk/reviews/rev291.htm }}
* {{cite book |last=Simonton |first=Dean Keith |title=Origins of genius: Darwinian perspectives on creativity |date=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-512879-6 |jstor=3080746|url=https://archive.org/details/originsofgeniusd00simo }}
* {{cite book |last1=Riordan |first1=Michael |last2=Hoddeson |first2=Lillian |title=Crystal Fire: The Invention of the Transistor and the Birth of the Information Age |location=New York |publisher=Norton |date=1997 |isbn=978-0-393-04124-8 |series=Sloan Technology Series |url=https://archive.org/details/crystalfirebirth00rior}}
**{{cite journal |author=Arthur P. Molella |title=Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age (review) |journal=Technology and Culture |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=623–625 |date=July 2000 |doi=10.1353/tech.2000.0121|doi-access=free }}
* {{cite news |last=Saxon |first=Wolfgang |title=William B. Shockley, 79, Creator of Transistor and Theory on Race |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0213.html |access-date=January 2, 2015 |quote=He drew further scorn when he proposed financial rewards for the ''genetically disadvantaged'' if they volunteered for sterilization. |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 14, 1989 }}
* {{cite periodical |title=Contributors to Proceedings of the I.R.E. |date=November 1952 |page=1611 |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4050875 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121126041440/http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=04050875 |archive-date=2012-11-26}} 
* {{cite journal |last1=Sparks |first1=Morgan |last2=Hogan |first2=Lester |last3=Linville |first3=John |title=[Obituary:] William Shockley |author-link1=Morgan Sparks |author-link2=Lester Hogan |journal=Physics Today |volume=44 |issue=6 |year=1991 |pages=130–132 |issn=0031-9228 |doi=10.1063/1.2810155 |bibcode = 1991PhT....44f.130S }}
* {{cite book |last=Tucker |first=William H. |title=The funding of scientific racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund |author-link=William H. Tucker (psychologist) |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |date=2007 |isbn=978-0-252-07463-9 |orig-date=first published 2002}}
**{{cite journal |author=Andrew S. Winston |title=The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund (review) |journal=Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=391–392 |date=July 2003 |doi=10.1093/jhmas/jrg016 |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_the_history_of_medicine_and_allied_sciences/summary/v058/58.3winston.html|url-access=subscription }}

== External links ==
{{commons category|William Shockley}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/50509.html National Academy of Sciences biography]
* {{Nobelprize}} including his Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1956 ''Transistor Technology Evokes New Physics''
* [https://www.pbs.org/transistor/album1/shockley/ PBS biography]
* Gordon Moore. [https://web.archive.org/web/20071016213117/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,990623,00.html Biography of William Shockley] ''Time Magazine''
* [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/inconversation/stories/2006/1678241.htm Interview with Shockley biographer Joel Shurkin]
*[https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4889 Oral history interview transcript for William Shockley on 10 September 1974, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives] - interview conducted by [[Lillian Hoddeson]] in [[Murray Hill, New Jersey]]
* [https://www.pbs.org/transistor/background1/events/miraclemo.html History of the transistor]
* [http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/William_Shockley William Shockley (IEEE Global History Network)]
* [https://www.pbs.org/transistor/background1/events/patbat.html Shockley and Bardeen-Brattain patent disputes]
* [http://www.counter-racism.com/c-r_tv/freeze-it.html William Shockley vs. Francis Cress-Welsing (Tony Brown Show, 1974)]
* [https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8qf8tf9/ William Bradford Shockley Papers] (SC0222) at Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries

{{Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates 1951-1975}}
{{1956 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{IEEE Medal of Honor 1976-2000}}
{{Time Persons of the Year 1951–1975}}
{{Beckman Coulter}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shockley, William}}
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