Michael Shur (born November 13, 1942) is a Russian and American physicist and a professor of

solid state electronics Solid-state electronics are semiconductor electronics: electronic equipment that use semiconductor devices such as transistors, diodes and integrated circuits (ICs). The term is also used as an adjective for devices in which semiconductor electr ...

and electrical engineering at

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (; RPI) is a private university, private research university in Troy, New York, United States. It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world and the Western Hemisphere. It was establishe ...

Background

Shur was born on November 13, 1942, in

Kamensk-Uralsky Kamensk-Uralsky ( rus, Ка́менск-Ура́льский, p=ˈkamʲɪnsk ʊˈralʲskʲɪj) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kamenka River (Sverdlovsk Oblast), ...

, Sverdlovsk,

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. He received his master's degree in Electrical Engineering from St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute. In 1967 he received his Ph.D. in physics from the A.F. Ioffe Institute in Petersburg, Russia. In 1993, he received Dr. Sc. degree from A.F. Ioffe Institute. Shur has held research or faculty positions at the A.F. Ioffe Institute,

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...

Oakland University Oakland University (OU or Oakland) is a public university, public research university in Auburn Hills, Michigan, Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1957 through a donation of Matilda Dodge Wilson and husband ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, and the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. From 1989 to 1996, he was the John Money Professor at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

, where he served as the director of the Applied Electrophysics Laboratories in 1996. He moved to

in 1996.

Research

Shur has led many research efforts in diverse fields related to semiconductor devices, solid-state physics, and engineering, such as plasma wave electronics, thin film transistors,

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...

technology, sub-micrometer

field effect transistor The field-effect transistor (FET) is a type of transistor that uses an electric field to control the current through a semiconductor. It comes in two types: junction FET (JFET) and metal-oxide-semiconductor FET (MOSFET). FETs have three termi ...

terahertz technology Terahertz radiation – also known as submillimeter radiation, terahertz waves, tremendously high frequency (THF), T-rays, T-waves, T-light, T-lux or THz – consists of electromagnetic waves within the International Telecommunicat ...

, Surface Acoustic, and Acousto-Optic devices. Having written over 1,000 technical publications, the

Institute for Scientific Information The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) was an academic publishing service, founded by Eugene Garfield in Philadelphia in 1956. ISI offered scientometric and bibliographic database services. Its specialty was citation indexing and analysis, ...

, an organization that tracks citations, lists him as one of the most quoted researchers in his field. He has also authored, co-authored, or served as editor for 32 books. As of 2022, he holds over 375 patents for a wide variety of microelectronic innovations.

Awards and honors

* in 1994 Honorary Doctorate from St. Petersburg State Technical University * in 2007 the

IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award The IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award was established in 1979 by the board of directors of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in honor of Donald G. Fink. He was a past president of the Institute of Radio Engineers (IR ...

for the paper "Solid-State Lighting: Towards Superior Illumination" * in 2007 the IEEE Leon K. Kirchmayer Graduate Teaching Award for "inspirational guidance of graduate students & development of novel teaching materials in solid-state electronics" * in 2008 IEEE Sensors Council Technical Achievement Award * in 2009 elected Foreign Member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences * in 2018 IEEE Ebers Award * in 2015 Institute of Electronic Technology Medal * in 2016, Fellow, US National Academy of Inventors * in 2016 Honorary Doctorate University of Vilnius

References

1942 births 21st-century American physicists Living people Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute faculty Fellows of the IEEE American electrical engineers {{US-electrical-engineer-stub