Chris:<br><br>Great post. I had not seen this Press Release.<br><br>And Congratulations to George Smith and Willard Boyle. CCDs have surely come a long way.<br><br>When I was an Electrical Engineering college student (in the mid 1970s, about 5 years after the CCD was invented) I had the unique opportunity to attend a lecture that was given by George Smith of Bell Labs. He talked enthusiastically about his new invention, the CCD, but at the time practical real-world applications of the device were no where to be found. In the lecture he referred to his new device as a "Bucket Brigade" because of the serial nature in which the stored charge was moved or shifted from from one cell to the next.<br><br>That chance encounter with George Smith was an important turning point in my life. At the time I thought to myself "This stuff is so cool. Bell Labs is definitely the place I want to work."<br><br>Not too many years later my wish came true and I got an opportunity to work at Bell Labs not on CCDs, but on single chip microprocessors.<br><br>So, congratulations George. Your invention has dramatically changed our world in many ways. And your enthusiasm for your work had a profound influence on at least one person -- Me.<br><br>Guy Pirro<br><br>