Talcott Mountain Academy"I went to Talcott, Trinity College, and Yale University - and Talcott was as important to my education as either of those other two."
Eric R. Fossum, born and raised in Connecticut, attended TMSC Saturday programs from Simsbury starting in 7th grade and eventually became interested in computer programming, landing his first professional job the day he turned 16. His time at TMSC gave him an environment where there was no preconceived notion of the way to do things, and a culture where student expectations were allowed to outstrip the status quo and even the instructors' vision. He later attended Trinity College and then received his Ph.D. from Yale.
Dr. Fossum is best known for the invention of the CMOS image sensor “camera-on-a-chip” used in billions of cameras, from smartphones to web cameras to pill cameras and many other applications, but he first created the invention at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for use in interplanetary spacecraft. He is a solid-state image sensor device physicist and engineer, and his career has included academic and government research, and entrepreneurial leadership. He holds over 175 US patents and has served as CEO of several startups along with his career. He is the John H. Krehbiel Sr. Professor for Emerging Technologies at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he teaches, performs research, and directs the School’s Ph.D. Innovation Program. He also serves as Dartmouth’s Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer.
Dr. Fossum has received a number of significant honors including the Queen Elizabeth Prize from HRH Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace (considered by many as the Nobel Prize of Engineering), induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, election to the National Academy of Engineering, the Edwin Land Medal, the NASA Exceptional Achievement Award, and winning an Emmy Award, among others. He is a TMSC Trustee.