born Feb. 10, 1902, Amoy, China
died Oct. 13, 1987, Seattle, Wash., U.S.
U.S. scientist.
His American parents brought him to the U.S. soon after his birth. After earning a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, he became a researcher at Bell Laboratories in 1929. With John Bardeen and William B. Shockley , he shared the 1956 Nobel Prize for Physics for the development of the transistor and for investigation of the properties of semiconductors .