When I arrived at the General Electric Research Laboratory at the beginning of 1955, fresh from a PhD at Cornell, I was greeted by my supervisor, Leroy Apker, who looked after the semiconductor section of the general physics department. I asked him to suggest some research topics that might be germane to the interests of the section. He said that what I did was entirely up to me. After recovering from my surprise, I asked, “Well, how are you going to judge my performance at the end of the year?” He replied, “Oh, I'll just call up the people at Bell and ask them how they think you are doing.” Viewed from today's environment, what is particularly hard to understand about this conversation is how an industrial laboratory, responsible to the operating units of the company and to the stockholders, could afford to take such a relaxed view.

Topics
General physics, Semiconductors, Laboratories
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© 1995 American Institute of Physics.
1995
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