Nobel Prize winners make the news, but for Willard “Butch” Boyle, his win this week for the Nobel Prize in Physics got extra attention in Canada because Boyle is a Nova Scotia native who grew up in Quebec. Although Boyle’s career was based in the the U.S. – he joined Bell Labs in New Jersey in 1953 – he really began to excel in school at age 14 when he was sent to Lower Canada College, a Montreal private school.
Boyle’s career in physics saw him co-invent a type of laser, contribute to the Apollo space program and help develop an image sensor that is considered a scientific breakthrough. The charge-coupled device – or CCD – was the first of what would become the CCDs that fill our digital cameras today.
The CCD may not go down in history as a Canadian invention like the Canadarm for the space shuttle, but Canadians can take pride in the fact that a key player in the way we take pictures today is Canadian. And the Halifax resident proudly developed his passion for physics at Lower Canada College and McGill University.
