Collection Guide
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Pearson (Gerald L.) Papers
SC0350
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Gerald L. Pearson papers
Identifier/Call Number: SC0350
Physical Description:
10 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1934-1987
Summary: Correspondence,
1961-1982, research notebooks on optical properties of solids and other subjects, technical
reports prepared during his tenure at Bell Telephone Laboratories, reprints, photographs and
slides, legal papers relating to patents, transcript of an oral history interview,
memorabilia, and other miscellaneous items.
Language of Material:
Undetermined .
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Gift of Mildred Pearson, 1988 and 1992, and James Harris, 1989.
This collection is open for research.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must
be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford
University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special
Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright
owner, heir(s) or assigns. See:
http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of
digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
Gerald L. Pearson Papers (SC0350). Department of Special Collections and University
Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Biographical/Historical Sketch
Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University from 1960 to 1987 and Director
of Stanford Solid State Electronics Laboratory. Research Physicist at Bell Telephone
Laboratories from 1929 to 1960 in the field of solid-state electronics. Co-inventor of the
solar cell, Pearson held a total of 34 U.S. patents relating to thermistors, transistors,
silicon power diodes, and solar cells.
Correspondence, 1961-1982, research notebooks on optical properties of solids and other
subjects, technical reports prepared during his tenure at Bell Telephone Laboratories,
reprints, photographs and slides, legal papers relating to patents, transcript of an oral
history interview, memorabilia, and other miscellaneous items.
The correspondence, dating from 1960 through 1981, consists of letters sent and received
while Pearson was a professor of Electrial Engineering at Stanford university. Also included
are technical reports for Bell Telephone Labs, reprints, articles and lectures concerning
the solar cell, photographs and slides documenting the solar cell, a notebook containing
abstracts of papers Pearson presented to the American Physical Society, affidavits and
testimony relating to patent trials and four transistor artifacts.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Physicists.
Solar cells.
Electrical engineering