Herbert Kroemer quotes

Herbert Kroemer is a German-American physicist renowned for his pioneering work in semiconductor technology. His research contributed significantly to the development of high-speed electronics and optoelectronics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for his groundbreaking achievements. Here are 3 of his quotes:

Whenever I came to him (Fritz Sauter) with a pure physics idea, he would invariably say, with slight sarcasm: "But Mr. Kroemer, you ought to be able to formulate this mathematically! " If I came to him with a math formulation, I would get, in a similar tone: "But Mr. Kroemer, that is just math, what is the physics?" After a few encounters of this kind, you got the idea: You had to be able to go back and forth with ease. Yet, in the last analysis, concepts took priority over formalism, the latter was simply an (indispensable) means to an end.

Herbert Kroemer

Ultimately, progress in applications is not deterministic, but opportunistic, exploiting for new applications whatever new science and technology happen to be coming along.

Herbert Kroemer