Caltech pays tribute to alumnus, electronics and technology pioneer and visionary philanthropist Gordon Moore

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Alumnus, Caltech Board Chairman Emeritus and visionary philanthropist Gordon Earle Moore (PhD ’54), pioneer of the modern electronics industry and co-founder of Intel Corporation, passed away on March 24, 2023. He was 94 years old.

Moore, who maintained close ties to Caltech throughout his life, is remembered as a multi-talented American businessman and engineer who was instrumental in the founding of Silicon Valley. Over time, his oft-quoted “Moore’s Law” evolved to become a golden rule for the electronics industry, a guiding principle within the long-term research and development industry that has driven the global innovation and economic growth. Moore and his wife Betty then built one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the world.

“Gordon Moore is an inspiration to Caltech students, alumni, and leaders,” says David W. Thompson (MS ’78), chairman of the Caltech board of directors. “With ambition, ingenuity and magnanimity, he changed the world and positioned the Institute’s scholars to pursue equally transformative goals.”

Gordon (PhD 54) and Betty Moore Credit: Courtesy of Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Image Lightbox

Gordon (PhD 54) and Betty Moore

Credit: Courtesy of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

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The Moores’ philanthropy reached out to the entire Institute. They established generous funds for university scholarships, professorships, an engineering laboratory, and discretionary resources. In 2001, they personally gave $300 million to Caltech and contributed a second gift of $300 million to the Institute from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. At the time, the combined giving totaling $600 million represented the largest gift ever to a higher education institution. Resources have supported a number of academic areas, including health and medicine, alternative energy development, information systems, seismology, nanotechnology, and astronomy. The Moores provided an additional $100 million to Caltech in 2014, which was used to create a permanent endowment for university research. The gift was part of a total donation of $137 million to Caltech’s Break Through campaign.

“Gordon Moore has had a profound influence in academia, industry, philanthropy, and society,” says Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum, Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and Physics Professor. “He helped shape Caltech through his leadership on the Board and through his generosity. Gordon’s wisdom, his curiosity, his joy in life and his humility will continue to inspire.”

Born January 3, 1929 in San Francisco, California, Moore received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1950. One day after marrying Betty Irene Whitaker, Moore began graduate school at Caltech, earning a doctorate in chemistry in 1954. then joined the technical staff of the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University and in 1956 joined the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, a manufacturer of transistors founded by William Shockley (BS ’32; Nobel Prize for physics, 1956).

Moore and seven others left Shockley to form Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation in 1957, with Moore eventually serving as director of research and development. By 1959, the company had developed a practical method of manufacturing integrated circuits in which all transistors, wiring, and other components were sculpted from a single silicon chip rather than being soldered together by hand on a circuit board. During the early 1960s, advances in technology allowed transistors to get smaller and smaller.

In an article in the April 19, 1965 issue of Electronics magazine, Moore predicted that the number of transistors that fit on a chip would double every year, a trend he predicted would continue through 1975. In 1975, he updated his prediction to a once every two years. While originally intended as a rule of thumb, this principle, now known as “Moore’s Law,” has become the guiding principle for the industry as it strives to deliver ever more powerful semiconductor chips with commensurate reductions in cost.

During a 2015 interview with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Moore said of his law, “I had no idea it would turn out to be a relatively accurate prediction, but I knew the general trend was in that direction.” He went on to express surprise at its accuracy: “Oh, I’m amazed. The original prediction was to look at ten years, which I thought was a stretch. This ranged from about 60 elements on an integrated circuit, to 60,000 to a thousand times extrapolation in ten years.”

“Progress doesn’t happen passively. Moore’s Law drove Intel and Gordon made it happen, step by step,” says Carver Mead (BS ’56, MS ’57, PhD ’60), Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Emeritus and Distinguished Alumnus. “It was a model of what leadership in industry could be. And Moore’s Law wasn’t just a technology statement; it was a leadership statement.”

Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce at the Intel 1970 Image Lightbox

In 1968, Moore and his colleague Robert Noyce founded Intel. Moore served as the company’s executive vice president until 1975 and CEO from 1975 to 1987. Intel developed techniques for making computer memory chips from metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors, or MOSFETs, that drew less power and they worked faster than competing devices. The company pioneered personal computers when it introduced the first commercially available microprocessor chip, the Intel 4004, in 1971. By the late 1980s, Intel was the leading source of microprocessors for the PC industry .

Under Moore’s leadership first as CEO and then as chairman of the board until 1997, when he became chairman emeritus, Intel has grown from a Mountain View-based startup to a Silicon Valley giant valued today at more than $120 billion. of dollars.

Named a Caltech Distinguished Alumnus in 1975, Moore became a Caltech trustee in 1983, a senior trustee in 2001, and a life member of the Caltech community in 2009. He served as chairman of the Caltech board from 1993 to 2000; the year he and his wife founded the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, an organization dedicated to creating positive outcomes for future generations in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the world. He has also served on the boards of Conservation International and Gilead Sciences, Inc.

Among many honours, Moore was a fellow of the National Academy of Engineering and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Engineers and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. In 1990 he was awarded the National Medal of Technology (now the National Medal of Technology and Innovation), and in 2002 received the nation’s highest civilian honor, the National Medal of Freedom.

Moore is survived by his wife Betty, sons Kenneth Moore and Steven Moore, and four grandchildren.

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