Interview: Bell Labs president eyes more Nobel Prize laureates

Photos of three winners of the Nobel Prize in physics for 2009 are seen on a screen during an announcement ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 6, 2009. Charles K. Kao, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith on Tuesday won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for discoveries of importance for the internet and data and telephone communications and the digital camera. (Xinhua/Wu Ping)
With two former scientists winning this year's Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday, Jeong Kim, president of Bell Labs, eyes more Nobel Prize laureates coming from the famous research organization in the future.

Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, was awarded the prize for their invention and development of the charge-coupled device (CCD)when they worked in Bell in 1969. They shared the prize with Chinese-American scientist Charles K. Kao, who made groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication.

This is the seventh Nobel Prize for Bell Labs and brings the total number of Bell Labs researchers who have won the prize to thirteen.

"The innovation (in Bell Labs) continue. And the innovation will be recognized sometime in the future. So I expect many more (Nobel Prize winner coming from Bell) in the future," Kim told Xinhua in an exclusive telephone interview.

Kim referred the main reasons for his big ambition to the quality of people in Bell and the environment it creates.

"The most important thing is that we actually try to recruit the best and brightest people from universities around the world, people from China, Germany, Canada, the United States," Kim said. "And we also try to create an environment where these researchers mingle naturally with others, which means people who are experts in device physics mingle with somebody who might be interested in video, who might be interested in mathematics, etc."

Both Boyle and Smith were members of the Semiconductor Components Division at Bell Labs and began their seminal work on the CCD in 1969.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences presents the winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics at the session hall of the academy in Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 6, 2009. Charles K. Kao, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith on Tuesday won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for discoveries of importance for the internet and data and telephone communications and the digital camera. (Xinhua/Wu Ping)
The CCD is the digital camera's electronic eye. It revolutionized photography, as light could now be captured electronically instead of on film. CCD technology is also used in many medical applications, e.g. imaging the inside of the human body, both for diagnostics and for microsurgery as well as astronomy.

"We are extremely proud of Willard Boyle and George Smith for what they have accomplished and the impact their innovations have made on the world we live in," Kim said Tuesday in a press release." They represent the best of Bell Labs -- world class research focused on transforming the way we communicate."

Kim, who used to be a submarine officer, said innovation is a team sports and his submarine experience taught him how to play a team work, leadership matters, which helped create an environment that could give scientists freedom to solve the top problems.

"This spirit continues to be at the heart of Bell Labs -- an approach of intellectual freedom in an environment where many disciplines and perspectives come together to do truly remarkable things."

Source: Xinhua