UC Berkeley press release

NEWS RELEASE, 7/17/96

Intel chairman awarded UC Berkeley's highest honor at Silicon Valley tribute

by Jose Rodriguez

Berkeley -- Intel founder and chairman Gordon E. Moore, often called the "father of Silicon Valley," received the Berkeley Medal, the highest honor given by UC Berkeley, at a gathering of influential high-technology leaders in Woodside yesterday evening (7/11).

Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien bestowed the honor on Moore for contributions that have changed technology, the economy and society. The Cal alumnus began his career in the 1950s in the Santa Clara Valley when it was dominated by miles of apricot and cherry orchards.

As founder and chairman of Intel, Moore is credited with realizing the potential of the integrated circuit and spawning the microprocessor. The basic integrated circuit is now in every microwave, radio, car, camera, television and telephone, while the microprocessor ushered in the Information Age.

"Gordon Moore has called himself an 'accidental entrepreneur,' someone who just happened to be in the right place at the right time: Berkeley during the heyday of postwar scientific discovery, and Silicon Valley before it was Silicon Valley. But Gordon Moore is modest," said Tien, in presenting the medal. "It takes guts, vision and brilliance to pull of the success he has achieved."

Moore graduated from UC Berkeley's College of Chemistry in 1950 and received a PhD in chemistry and physics from Caltech in 1954. His wife of nearly 46 years, Betty, was at his side as the medal was presented.

Others who have received the Berkeley Medal in recent years are international leaders Corazón Aquino, François Mitterrand, and Dr. Helmut Kohl, and business leaders such as Walter A. Haas, Jr.

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