Jay T. Last is a silicon pioneer and a member of the so-called Traitorous Eight[1] that founded Silicon Valley.
He was born in 1929 in Butler, Pennsylvania. He earned his bachelor's degree in Optics at the University of Rochester in 1951 and his Ph.D. in physics from MIT in 1956.
He worked at the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory division of Beckman Instruments, and left the company along with the rest of what Shockley termed the Traitorous Eight to form the influential Fairchild Semiconductor corporation.
Last later co-founded Amelco[2] with Traitorous Eight alumni Jean Hoerni and Sheldon Roberts. Amelco was acquired by Teledyne as one of its earliest purchases, and Last served as a Teledyne vice-president[2] until his retirement.
He founded The Archaeological Conservancy in 1980,[3] which has preserved and protected over 150 archeological sites in 28 states in the U.S..
He is president of Hillcrest Press in Santa Anna and Beverly Hills which publishes fine art books on the history of American painting. Last himself has authored or co-authored a number of art books.[4]
In May, 2011, the California Historical Society in San Francisco gave the “Legends of California Award” to Last, 81, and others of the Fairchild Eight.[5] Looking back in advance of the award ceremony, Last said of the departure from Shockley: "'It wasn’t scary. ... When you are in your late 20s you don’t know enough to be scared, we just did it. We just knew what we had to do and we did it.' Their goal was to make silicon transistors, which Shockley had abandoned in favor of another idea he unsuccessfully pursued," the report continued. "All integrated circuits today are successors of the first Fairchild chips, Last [also] said."[6]