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however, eight younger scientists (the “Traitorous Eight,” as they were widely known) defected and used their own money to develop a method of mass-producing silicon transistors relatively cheaply and efficiently. With the help of a $1.5 million investment from Fairchild Camera and In- strument Corporation, on October 1, 1957, their new com- pany, Fairchild Semiconductor, was founded. (“The Eight” shipped their first order—100 transistors that they had sold to IBM for $150 each—in an old carton from the supermar- ket.) By the time Greene joined the enterprise, Fairchild was well on its way to revolutionizing the computer industry, and he helped greatly in that mission; Greene’s name is on the patent for the integrated circuit that made the company

an undisputed industry leader in the late 1960s. (Integrated circuits could be made much, much smaller than separate circuits made from sev- eral separate electronic components. That was a key breakthrough in the ongoing drive to make computer parts smaller.) Greene, who in 1970 earned a Ph.D. from San- ta Clara University, later

Greene was part of the team that created the first integrated circuits, which have come a long way since.

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Black Achievement in Science: Technology