James E. West born in 1931(photo below) is a pioneering inventor who invented the foil electret "microphone" in 1962 while working at Bell Labs. This innovation "revolutionized" sound technology by creating a compact, sensitive, and inexpensive "microphone". Today, over 90% of the two billion "microphones" produced annually—used in phones, laptops, camcorders, multimedia computers and hearing aids—are based on HIS electret technology. All these items employ electret technology.

In 1960 James was teamed up with Gerhard M. Sessler, a German born physicist, and the two were tasked to develop an inexpensive, highly sensitive and compact microphone.

James, a native of Farmville, Virginia, as the elder of two children to Samuel Edward and Matilda West. He was born in his maternal grandfather's house because the local hospital would not admit Black people.