Ever since the Polish scientist Jan Czochralski discovered a way to grow single crystals of semiconductors with high purity in 1915, the technique now known as the Czochralski method has long underpinned the global semiconductor industry with its ability to scale up the single-crystal production of silicon and germanium. A decade later, Czochralski was invited back to his native land where he consolidated his research and passed on his legacy to the Warsaw University of Technology.