Federico Faggin is an Italian physicist, inventor and entrepreneur. Born in Vicenza, Italy in 1941, he has resided in the United States since 1968. He was the project leader and designer of the Intel 4004, the world's first microprocessor, and the developer of silicon-gate MOS technology, which enabled the fabrication of the first microprocessors, dynamic EPROM and RAM memories, and CCD sensors, the essentials for digitizing information. In 1974 he founded Zilog, with which he created the famous Z80 microprocessor, still in production today. In 1986 he co-founded Synaptics, a firm with which he developed the first Touchpads and Touchscreens. On October 19, 2010, he received the National Medal for Technology and Innovation from President Obama, for the invention of the microprocessor. In 2019 he was awarded the title of Cavaliere di gran Croce dell'Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana by President Mattarella. In 2011 he founded the Federico and Elvia Faggin Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the scientific study of consciousness, through which he sponsors theoretical and experimental research programs at U.S. and Italian universities and research institutions.