William Shockley was an American physicist and inventor born in 1910. He is best known for co-inventing the transistor, a crucial development in the field of electronics. Shockley's work at Bell Labs paved the way for the modern information age. Despite his significant scientific contributions, Shockley was a controversial figure due to his outspoken views on race and eugenics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 and passed away in 1989.