Julius Edgar Lilienfeld

J. E. Lilienfeld
Lilienfeld at age 53
Born(1882-04-18)April 18, 1882
DiedAugust 28, 1963(1963-08-28) (aged 81)
CitizenshipAustro-Hungarian (1882 – September 1919)
Polish (1919–1934)
American (1934–1963)
Alma materFriedrich-Wilhelms-Universität
Known forField-effect transistor
Electrolytic capacitor
Scientific career
FieldsPhysicist
Electrical engineer
InstitutionsLeipzig University
Amrad, Inc
Ergon Research Laboratories
Doctoral advisorMax Planck
Emil Warburg
Other academic advisorsJacobus Henricus van 't Hoff
Signature

Julius Edgar Lilienfeld (April 18, 1882 – August 28, 1963) was an Austro-Hungarian-American physicist and electrical engineer, who has been credited with the first patent on the field-effect transistor (FET) (1925). He was never able to build a working practical semiconducting device based on this concept. Additionally, because of his failure to publish articles in learned journals and since high-purity semiconductor materials were not available to him, his FET patent never achieved fame, causing confusion for later inventors.[1]