Over 60 years ago, I was so impressed by the collection of minerals at the Cleveland (Ohio) Museum of Natural History that I started collecting crystals, a hobby I have continued to pursue to this day. Indeed, my fascination with natural crystals propelled me to study them as a materials scientist at MIT, leading me to work on the perfection of synthetic crystals used in the semiconductor industry at Fairchild and Intel. As a result, I helped position the US through Intel as the leading manufacturer of integrated circuits in the world and became an Intel Senior Fellow living here in Phoenix, all as a result of this initial exposure to natural crystals as a kid.
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