Wallace -
Canada's newest Nobel Prize Laureate was not at a celebration held in his honour in person, but his invention allowed him to participate from a continent away.
About 60 friends and neighbours of Dr. Willard S. Boyle, or Bill as he is known locally, celebrated his achievement while he was receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics in Stockholm on Thursday.
"It's a pretty big thing," said Trish Elliott, who met Boyle and his wife Betty through a mutual interest in art.
"You don't get much bigger than this."
Blair Perrott of Malagash also came to show support for his neighbour on Boyle's big day.
"I think it's an outstanding thing," he said. "It's the first time in my life I've met a Nobel Laureate."
During the ceremony held at the Wallace and Area Museum, three of the physicist's friends, Dr. Stuart Semple, Dr. Tony Bidwell and Dr. Stephen Leahey paid tribute to Boyle for winning science's most prestigious award.
Boyle's Nobel Laureate lecture, taped in Stockholm, Tuesday, Dec. 8 was also shown to guests.
Boyle, age 85, learned on Oct. 6 he had won the honour for developing the revolutionary Charged-Coupled Device (CCD) more than 40 years ago when he worked for Bell Laboratories.
The CCD, an imaging semiconductor circuit, is a key component of digital cameras and the heart of all video cameras, both analog and digital.
The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics is shared by Boyle and two other American scientists George E. Smith and Charles K. Kao.
Ron MacNutt, municipal councillor for the area, said he felt is was important for the community to come together in Boyle's honour, even though he wasn't present, to show how proud they are to call him a friend and neighbour.
"In society today there are many heroes that rise quickly and are quickly torn down," said MacNutt. "Bill is the real deal. He's a humble man that most people know as Bill the neighbour not Bill the Nobel Prize laureate."
