Richard Williams (chemist)
Richard Williams (born August 5, 1927 in Chicago ) is an American chemist and pioneer of liquid crystals in displays ( LCDs ).
Live and act
Williams graduated from Miami University with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1950 and received a PhD in physical chemistry from Harvard University in 1954 . From 1955 to 1958 he was an instructor at Harvard. From 1958 until his retirement in 1991 he was at the RCA Laboratories in Princeton and became a fellow of the laboratory.
In 1963 he was a visiting scientist at the RCA laboratories in Zurich.
He dealt with liquid crystals, internal photoemission, interfaces of semiconductors and electrolytes, properties of electrons on the surface of liquid helium, properties of phosphorus, crystallized suspensions of polystyrene microspheres and solar energy. He showed that most compound semiconductors disintegrate in contact with a liquid electrolyte when illuminated and thus, to a good approximation, form a contact with high resistance and enable extremely high electrical fields in semiconductors. With it he could observe the Franz Keldysh effect . He pioneered the use of internal photoemission in studying the properties of metal-semiconductor and metal-insulator interfaces, as well as the silicon-silicon dioxide interface. He developed the corona charge method to investigate electrical breakdowns in silicon dioxide.
He became known through the discovery of the formation of a domain structure of nematic liquid crystals when electric fields are applied (Williams domains).
In 1969 he was a Fulbright Lecturer at the Sao Carlos School of Engineering in Brazil. He is a Corresponding Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Physical Society . He received the Callinan Prize from the Electrochemical Society. He was inducted into the New Jersey Inventor's Hall of Fame.
Web links
- Richard Williams on Memories of VideoDisc - Who's Who in VideoDisc, cedmagic
Individual evidence
- ↑ Life and career data American Men and Women of Science , Thomson Gale 2004
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Williams, Richard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 5, 1927 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chicago |