Italian chips in with top EU inventor award

THE Italian scientist who co-invented the microchip was named Europe’s top inventor yesterday.

A jury of world experts in a new EU-sponsored competition looked at scientific achievements by European scientists and choose 18 finalists from 11 countries. There were no Irish among those chosen, despite the country being given “average performance” rating in a recent EU study.

The top prize went to Federico Faggin, father of the microchip, an invention that led to the modern computer. He developed it with two colleagues for Intel in the US in February 1971.