James Donald Meindl (April 20, 1933 – June 7, 2020) was director of the Joseph M. Pettit Microelectronics Research Center and the Marcus Nanotechnology Research Center and Pettit Chair Professor of Microelectronics at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. He won the 2006

IEEE Medal of Honor The IEEE Medal of Honor is the highest recognition of the American Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). It has been awarded since 1917, and is presented to an individual or team of up to three who have made exceptional contri ...

"for pioneering contributions to microelectronics, including low power, biomedical, physical limits and on-chip interconnect networks.”

Education

He received his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

and

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

degrees in

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from

Carnegie-Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a Private university, private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became t ...

in 1955, 1956 and 1958 respectively.

Career

From 1965 to 1967, he was the founding Director of the Integrated Electronics Division at the

Fort Monmouth, New Jersey Fort Monmouth is a former installation of the Department of the Army in Monmouth County, New Jersey and the site of a major upcoming Netflix film production campus, alongside a variety of other redevelopment. The site is surrounded by the commun ...

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

Electronics Laboratories. In 1967 he was appointed John M. Fluke Professor of Electrical Engineering at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

before becoming vice provost of research. He went on to serve as Associate Dean for Research in the School of Engineering; Director of the Center for Integrated Systems; and was the founding Director of the Integrated Circuits Laboratory. He was appointed Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost of

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 ...

in 1986 and served in there until 1993. Meindl's fellowships include the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

and the AAAS and he was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

in 1978. He is also a co-founder of Telesensory Systems, Inc., a manufacturer of electronic reading aids for the blind. Meindl also served on the board of directors of SanDisk Corporation and

Zoran Corporation Zoran Corporation was a multinational digital technology company, founded in 1981 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, that was predominantly focused on designing and selling SoC (System on a Chip) integrated circuits for consumer electronic ...

and previously of Stratex Networks.

Notable students

Among his more than 80 doctoral studentsJames D. Meindl overview with an ordered list of all of his PHD students
Digest of James D. Meindl Retirement Party, Stanford University, Oct, 2016
/ref> include T. J. Rodgers, founder of

Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Corporation was an American semiconductor design and manufacturing company. It offered NOR flash memories, F-RAM and SRAM Traveo microcontrollers, PSoCs, PMICs, capacitive touch-sensing controllers, Wireless BLE Bluet ...

, William R. Brody, president of

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

Levy Gerzberg Levy Gerzberg (; born 1945) is an Israeli-American businessman and inventor, known for co-founding Zoran Corporation. Zoran pioneered directly and via acquisitions the design and marketing of system on a chip (SoC) technology and devices which o ...

, founder of

Roger Melen Roger Douglas Melen (1946–2024) was an electrical engineer recognized for his early contributions to the microcomputer industry, and for his technical innovations. Dr. Melen was co-founder of Cromemco, one of the earliest microcomputer compa ...

founder of

Cromemco Cromemco, Inc. was a Mountain View, California microcomputer company known for its high-end Z80-based S-100 bus computers and peripherals in the early days of the personal computer revolution. The company began as a partnership in 1974 between ...

, Jim Plummer, dean of engineering at Stanford University,

L. Rafael Reif Leo Rafael Reif (born August 21, 1950) is a Venezuelan American electrical engineer and academic administrator. He previously served as the 17th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2012 to 2022, provost of the institute ...

, President of

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

, Richard Swanson, founder of SunPower Corporation, Steve Combs, founder of

Maxim Integrated Products Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., was an American semiconductor company that designed, manufactured, and sold analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for the automotive, industrial, communications, consumer, and computing markets. Maxim's p ...

, Nicky Lu, founder of Etron Technology and Krishna Saraswat, professor at Stanford University.

References

External links

Georgia Institute of Technology profile
* James D. Meindl, "The Wizard of Watts, IEEE Spectrum, May 31, 2006. https://spectrum.ieee.org/wizard-of-watts {{DEFAULTSORT:Meindl, James D. 1933 births 2020 deaths IEEE Medal of Honor recipients Carnegie Mellon University College of Engineering alumni Georgia Tech faculty Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Stanford University faculty