CBC, Chronicle Herald - Willard Boyle, Nova Scotian Nobel Prize winner, dies at 86

Willard Boyle, a Nova Scotia Nobel laureate, died Saturday at the age of 86. An Amherst native, Boyle was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics for his work along with scientists George Smith and Charles Kao in digital imaging. Their work involved a light-sensitive chip called a charge-coupled device that has evolved to be used in medical imaging devices, bar-code readers, digital cameras and copy machines.

Boyle was born in Amherst in 1924 but his family moved to Quebec when he was three. He was home-schooled by his mother until Grade 9 and later graduated from McGill University. The charge-coupled device wasn't the only invention the former Spitfire pilot helped develop. In 1962, he partnered with Don Nelson to invent the ruby laser, which today is used in most CD players.