Ray dolby
American engineer and inventor
Marshall Scholar, Class of 1957 (Cambridge University)
“To be an inventor, you have to be willing to live with a sense of uncertainty, to work in this darkness and grope towards an answer, to put up with anxiety about whether there is an answer.”
- Ray Dolby
CAN YOU HEAR THAT?
Ray Milton Dolby's career as an inventor and engineer first began as a teenager, producing prototypes of video tape recorders for Ampex, an electronics company based near his neighborhood. Dolby continued to pursue engineering as an undergraduate at Stanford and then received his PhD in Physics at Cambridge University on a Marshall Scholarship (Class of 1957).
In 1965, after working as a technical advisor for the United Nations in India, Dolby returned to England and founded Dolby Laboratories. With his team, he invented the Dolby noise-reduction system and surround sound compression, improving sound quality for filmmakers and musicians. His work has been awarded Oscars, Emmys and Grammys, and powers virtually all our modern sound equipment.
Dr. Dolby was named to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 1987. He was also awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Clinton in 1997.