Carl Marcus Olson was born in 1911, to Swedish immigrants in Chicago. His father, Doctor Oscar N. Olson, a clergyman, and his mother, Wilhelmina Peterson Olson raised him and his older sister Heloise in Sioux City, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois.
He graduated from Rock Island High School and Augustana College, Illinois.
After graduating from Augustana in 1932, he went to the University of Chicago for his Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor Olson was recruited to work for the DuPont Company in Baltimore, Doctor of Medicine, at the Krebs Pigment and Color plant as a chemist/physicist for work on the white pigment titanium dioxide. During World World War II, an effort was underway to develop electrical components for radar. The key material needed in both paint research and electronics was pure silicon.
His research at DuPont pinpointed a way to purify the element, and he grew the first crystal of hyper-pure silicon.
As a result, DuPont started a silicon production program, which in the following years led to use of available silicon for circuits and semiconductors. The predominant use of silicon for these components and chips lead to the area around San Jose, California to be nicknamed the "Silicon Valley".
Doctor Olson died on May 16, 2011 at the age of 99.
