Bob Widlar

Excavator Flow Tube || Hydraulic Fix
AvE

I always enjoy AvE's videos. The way he mangles the English language is kinda spectacular. At the end of this video there is shot of a poster. A little rootin' around and I found it:

Bob Widlar

Found this exchange on reddit:

TheAnalogKoala:

My grad school advisor knew him personally. Said he was a massive dick.

But a brilliant analog designer.

My favorite Widlar Story is when he published a paper in the late 60s explaining why an temperature-stabilized accurate voltage reference was impossible.

Then he published the bandgap reference.

What an asshole.

dr_meme_69: 

Isn’t that how research is supposed to look like? Can you explain to me why he is an asshole for contradicting himself later on?

TheAnalogKoala:

Because it was a prank. He had already invented the bandgap reference when published a paper “proving” it was impossible.

Basically this was a guy with a BS running circles around all the PhDs and he knew it.

There are numerous articles about this guy out there on the net. Here's a few:

• Autodesk
• All About Circuits
• National Inventors Hall of Fame
• Wikipedia