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Interview with Cyril Hilsum CBE

“Cyril Hilsum is a British physicist and material scientist, who carried out research on infra-red devices and semi-conductors, and played a key role in the development of flat-panel liquid crystal displays.

He was awarded numerous prizes from several institutions: he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and an honorary member of the American National Academy of Engineering. He was awarded the Max Born Prize in 1987 and the Faraday Medal in 1988.

He was awarded the CBE in 1990 for services to the Electrical and Electronics Industry.

In 2007 he was awarded the Royal Society’s Royal Medal for his many outstanding contributions and for continuing to use his prodigious talents on behalf of industry, government and academia to this day”

Early Life

Cyril Hilsum was born in May 1925, in the East End of London where he lived until the outbreak of war. His father was a street trader. He has two brothers. He describes his childhood as poor but happy, he says: “I distinguished myself quite often by taking what toys we were given to pieces and trying to work out how they worked and then trying to assemble them, usually unsuccessfully.  I could say that that’s how I began my engineering life.”  He adds that he had the feeling that life had more to offer than the East End and that it was up to him to work hard to break away from it.

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