Judging Bell Labs

Perhaps that's what makes the ending of its material and device physics group so tragic. That group is closely associated with what many consider Bell Labs greatest achievement: the invention of the transistor. Ever since a team led by Bill Shockley produced that first transistor in 1948, Bell Labs had been on the forefront of microelectronics. But with the spin-off of Agere earlier this decade, Bell Labs no longer had a semiconductor group to support. It continued to maintain a fabrication facility in Murray Hill to support its other research efforts, but now that facility is shuttering its doors.

Bell Labs is the victim of its own history. Most companies are lauded for exiting a particular line of research once it is no longer commercially viable, but their decisions are judged almost solely in business terms. Bell Labs, however, is viewed not just as a research arm of its parent company, but as a research institution in its own right — one that is judged by its contribution to science at large, not just to the bottom line. It was a reputation that AT&T embraced during the monopoly years when it could afford to do so, but not a reputation that Alcatel-Lucent or any other company today could afford to maintain. So yes, the current Bell Labs isn't the Bell Labs of yesteryear. As a statement it's perfectly valid, but as a criticism it's not.