When he coinvented the integrated circuit, or microchip, Jack Kilby also co-launched the age of modern electronics. He was born in Jefferson City, Missouri, and spent most of his childhood in Great Bend, Kansas. Following in his father's footsteps, Kilby earned a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois in 1947, his studies having been interrupted by service in World War II. He went on to earn his master's degree in 1950 from the University of Wisconsin. At this time Kilby was also employed at the Centralab Division of Globe-Union Corporation, where he worked on ideas for manufacturing all parts of an electrical circuit on a single base.

After attending a seminar at Bell Laboratories in 1952 on the newly patented transistor, Kilby tried to develop transistor-based hearing aids. Dissatisfied with Centralab's commitment to the use of germanium rather than silicon transistors, Kilby joined Texas Instruments in 1958, which was...