Stanford Ovshinsky pioneered the field of amorphous (disordered or structureless) materials that can be reversibly changed between amorphous and crystalline phases by an energy source, such as electricity or a laser beam. The phase change produces a change in conductivity, the amorphous structure representing zero (off) and the ordered structure representing one (on). Because the change is stable, these materials, called ovonics, are suitable for computer processors and memory, optical data storage, high-temperature superconductivity, and silverless photography.

Ovshinsky was born in Akron, Ohio, where he graduated from high school and from trade school as a machinist. His first invention, in the early 1940s, was an automated lathe that became widely used. In the early 1950s, while working as research director of an auto parts manufacturing company, he experimented with switches that worked like neurons (brain cells). Since the brain does not require ordered structures to use energy and...