[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 23573]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          TRIBUTE TO DRS. WILLARD S. BOYLE AND GEORGE E. SMITH

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I rise to extend my deepest 
congratulations to Drs. Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith--two New 
Jersey scientists who have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, an 
incredible honor for extraordinary ingenuity in their chosen field and 
fitting recognition for their outstanding achievement.
  They have expanded the boundaries of science, inventing something 
most of us do not understand, but which has made a difference in our 
lives. The invention of the charged-coupled device, or CCD, now found 
in digital cameras used around the world and by NASA on the ground-
breaking Hubble Telescope, revolutionized how we take photographs and 
manipulate and transfer images. It has given us insight into the 
deepest reaches of space, allowed us to see remarkable images that have 
made us better understand the vastness and magnificence of the 
universe, and better appreciate the simple images in our family 
photographs.
  Dr. Boyle and Dr. Smith have done their work at Bell Laboratories in 
Murray Hill, NJ, and now have enriched our State's proud tradition of 
scientific breakthrough and innovation. We can add their names to those 
of Albert Einstein, who made Princeton his base, and Thomas Edison, who 
from his Garden State lab invented the incandescent light bulb that lit 
the world. The names of Boyle and Smith will now loom large in the 
scientific history of our State. They have made New Jersey and the 
United States very proud.
  Their contribution to science is in their remarkable discovery, but 
their legacy to mankind is in their pioneering spirit, their ingenuity, 
and their quest to look further, think harder, and discover what no one 
else could.
  I join with my colleagues and with every American in thanking them 
for making our lives better and wish them the very best as they 
continue careers that brought them to this place, having earned a Nobel 
Prize almost 40 years to the day after they began their long scientific 
journey.
  To Dr. Boyle and Dr. Smith, we offer the best wishes of a grateful 
Nation.

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