Dennard was born in Terrell, Texas. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from
Southern Methodist University,
Dallas, in 1954 and 1956, respectively. He earned a Ph.D. from
Carnegie Institute of Technology in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1958. His professional career was spent as a researcher for
International Business Machines. In 1966 he invented the one transistor memory cell consisting of a transistor and a capacitor for which a patent was issued in 1968. It became the basis for today's
dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and almost all other memory types such as SRAM and FLASH memory. DRAM was instrumental in changing the world of computing through faster and higher capacity memory access.
Awards and Recognition In 1984, Dennard was elected a member of the
National Academy of Engineering for pioneering work in FET technology, including invention of the one transistor dynamic RAM and contributions to scaling theory. Besides his technical accomplishments, Dennard was involved in other creative fields. Throughout his retirement, Dennard continued to fuel his creativity through choral singing and Scottish dancing. Dennard died on April 23, 2024, at the age of 91. ==Awards and honors==