While working at Bell Laboratories, James E. West and Gerhard Sessler developed the foil electret microphone. The design became widely adopted because it combined strong performance with small size, low weight, reliability and low production cost.

West built a decades-long career in acoustics and holds numerous U.S. and international patents. He later joined Johns Hopkins University, where he continued research and teaching and advocated for greater participation of Black students and other underrepresented groups in science and engineering.

Much of modern life depends on microphones people rarely notice. West’s record demonstrates how a single engineering advance can become infrastructure embedded in communication, medicine, entertainment and everyday devices.