James F. Gibbons

Last updated

James F. Gibbons
Born (1931-09-19) September 19, 1931 (age 92)
Nationality American
Alma mater Stanford University
Northwestern University
Awards IEEE Jack A. Morton Award (1980)
IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal (1985)
IEEE Paul Rappaport Award (1989)
IEEE Founders Medal (2011)
Scientific career
Fields Electrical engineering
Institutions Stanford University

James F. Gibbons (born September 19, 1931) is an American electrical engineer and academic administrator. He is credited (together with William Shockley) with starting the semiconductor device fabrication laboratory at Stanford University that enabled the semiconductor industry and created Silicon Valley. [1]

Contents

Gibbons is also credited for inventing Tutored Video Instruction, which is widely used at Stanford University and its Stanford Instructional Television Network. The Tutored Video Instruction is used to educate engineers and non students who are in need via SERA Learning Technologies (which Gibbons founded). [2]

Gibbons was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1974 for leadership as a teacher, author, and researcher in semiconductor electronics.

Early life

James F. Gibbons was born in Leavenworth, Kansas [3] on September 19, 1931, to Clifford and Mary Gibbons. His father was a guard at United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, until Gibbons was about eight years old. [3] At that time, his father was transferred to a minimum security prison in Texarkana, Texas. [3] Gibbons spent his middle and high school years there, until he went off to college. [3]

Higher education

Gibbons left Texas to pursue his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at Northwestern University chosen due to receiving a partial scholarship from Northwestern, Northwestern's proximity to Chicago and the jazz music scene there (Gibbons played trombone and was also pondering a possible musical career), [4] and also due to Northwestern's co-op requirement. [3] Gibbons co-oped at Tungstal, where he worked on vacuum tubes being used in televisions. [3] In 1953, after five years (due to the mandatory co-op), Gibbons finished his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering at Northwestern University in 1953. [3] He also earned a National Science Foundation fellowship from his efforts at Northwestern, which was able to be used at any school across the United States. [4]

After discussions with his Northwestern advisor (who was the chairman of Electrical Engineering Department), Gibbons chose to accept admission to Stanford University for his advanced degree work. [4] At Stanford, Gibbons took a course titled "Transistors and Active Circuit Design.”, which was being taught by John Linvill, formerly of Bell Labs. [4] This course captivated Gibbons and he spent extra time with Linvill, leading Linvill to convince Gibbons that he should stay at Stanford and earn a Ph.D. [4] Gibbons did just that (graduating with a Ph.D from Stanford in 1956 [3] ) and his Ph.D. thesis was on a methodology for transistor circuit design that would utilize feedback to mitigate the variations between transistors of that time. [4] Based on his efforts at Stanford, Gibbons was awarded a Fulbright scholarship, which he utilized at Cambridge University to work on grain boundaries in magnetic materials. [4]

Academic career

After completing his work at Cambridge, Gibbons was considering several job opportunities when John Linvill again interceded. [4] Linvill convinced Gibbons to consider a hybrid position where he would work 50% at Shockley Semiconductor to learn semiconductor fabrication techniques from William Shockley and the other 50% as an assistant professor at Stanford, setting up a laboratory to fabricate semiconductors and teaching the techniques to Stanford Ph.D. students.

On August 1, 1957, Gibbons joined the Stanford faculty [5] and began his work with Shockley. [4] Six months later, Gibbons' lab at Stanford produced its first silicon device. [4] After presenting a conference paper on their results, the Stanford semiconductor fabrication lab became the cornerstone upon which John Linvill and Stanford built a solid-state electronics laboratory and attracted to Stanford some of the leading people in the burgeoning field of semiconductors, including persons such as Gerald Pearson and John Moll. [4]

Stanford named Gibbons as a professor of Electrical Engineering in 1964 [6] and dean of the School of Engineering in 1984, [7] a position he held until June 1996. [6] In 1995, Gibbons was appointed as special counsel to the Stanford University President and Provost for Industry Relations at Stanford University. [7]

Gibbons also contributed to the Stanford Instructional Television Network; he invented a widely used Tutored Video Instruction [8] that is used at Stanford University and in other places. This video network is to extend the education of engineers. Gibbon's Tutored video instruction has been used to educate the children of migrant farm workers and to help at-risk teens with their anger problems. He founded SERA Learning Technologies which utilizes this technology for that aim. [2]

Industry leadership

He served on the Board of Directors of:

He also served on committees advising the Presidential Science Advisor in the Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations.

Awards and honors

Gibbons has received many awards and was elected a member of the American Academy or Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and as a Fellow of the IEEE. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transistor</span> Solid-state electrically operated switch also used as an amplifier

A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semiconductor material, usually with at least three terminals for connection to an electronic circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals controls the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Some transistors are packaged individually, but many more in miniature form are found embedded in integrated circuits. Because transistors are the key active components in practically all modern electronics, many people consider them one of the 20th century's greatest inventions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Shockley</span> American physicist, inventor, and eugenicist (1910–1989)

William Bradford Shockley Jr. was an American inventor, physicist, and eugenicist. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The three scientists were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for "their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect".

Jean Amédée Hoerni was a Swiss-born American engineer. He was a silicon transistor pioneer, and a member of the "traitorous eight". He developed the planar process, an important technology for reliably fabricating and manufacturing semiconductor devices, such as transistors and integrated circuits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James S. Harris</span> American scientist and engineer

James S. Harris is a scientist and engineer and fellow of IEEE, American Physical Society and Optical Society of America. His research primarily deals with optoelectronic devices and semiconductor material research.

A transistor is a semiconductor device with at least three terminals for connection to an electric circuit. In the common case, the third terminal controls the flow of current between the other two terminals. This can be used for amplification, as in the case of a radio receiver, or for rapid switching, as in the case of digital circuits. The transistor replaced the vacuum-tube triode, also called a (thermionic) valve, which was much larger in size and used significantly more power to operate. The first transistor was successfully demonstrated on December 23, 1947, at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Bell Labs was the research arm of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T). The three individuals credited with the invention of the transistor were William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The introduction of the transistor is often considered one of the most important inventions in history.

Ian Munro Ross FREng was an early pioneer in transistors, and for 12 years President of Bell Labs.

Chih-Tang "Tom" Sah is a Chinese-American electronics engineer and condensed matter physicist. He is best known for inventing CMOS logic with Frank Wanlass at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1963. CMOS is used in nearly all modern very large-scale integration (VLSI) semiconductor devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John G. Linvill</span>

John G. Linvill was an American professor (emeritus) of Electrical engineering at Stanford University, known for his pioneering work in higher education, integrated circuits and semiconductors, and for development of the Optacon reading machine for the blind.

Chenming Calvin Hu is a Taiwanese-American electronic engineer who specializes in microelectronics. He is TSMC Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the electronic engineering and computer science department of the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States. In 2009, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers described him as a “microelectronics visionary … whose seminal work on metal-oxide semiconductor MOS reliability and device modeling has had enormous impact on the continued scaling of electronic devices”.

James C. Bliss was an American electrical engineer and entrepreneur best known for his pioneering role in developing technological aids for visually impaired people.

Bantval Jayant Baliga is an Indian electrical engineer best known for his work in power semiconductor devices, and particularly the invention of the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sorab K. Ghandhi</span>

Sorab (Soli) K. Ghandhi was a professor Emeritus at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) known for his pioneering work in electrical engineering and microelectronics education, and in the research and development of Organometallic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (OMVPE) for compound semiconductors. He was the recipient of the IEEE Education Award "For pioneering contributions to semiconductor and microelectronics education" in 2010.

Lawrence Joseph Giacoletto was an American electrical engineer and inventor. He was known among others for his work in the field of semiconductor circuit technology, in particular by the eponymous Giacoletto equivalent circuit for transistors.

Dawon Kahng was a Korean-American electrical engineer and inventor, known for his work in solid-state electronics. He is best known for inventing the MOSFET, along with his colleague Mohamed Atalla, in 1959. Kahng and Atalla developed both the PMOS and NMOS processes for MOSFET semiconductor device fabrication. The MOSFET is the most widely used type of transistor, and the basic element in most modern electronic equipment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mervin Kelly</span> American physicist

Mervin Joseph Kelly was an American industrial physicist. He worked at Bell Labs from 1925 to 1959, in which time he held positions such as director of research, president, and chairman of the board of directors.

Morris Tanenbaum was an American physical chemist and executive who worked at Bell Laboratories and AT&T Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsu-Jae King Liu</span>

Tsu-Jae King Liu is an American academic and engineer who serves as the Dean and the Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering at the UC Berkeley College of Engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Srabanti Chowdhury</span> Indian American Electrical Engineer

Srabanti Chowdhury is an Indian American Electrical Engineer who is an associate professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University. She is a senior fellow of the Precourt Institute for Energy. At Stanford she works on ultra-wide and wide-bandgap semiconductors and device engineering for energy-efficient electronic devices. She serves as Director for Science Collaborations at the United States Department of Energy Energy Frontier Research Center ULTRA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Richman</span> American semiconductor physicist

Paul Richman is an American semiconductor physicist and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hiroyuki Matsunami</span> A Japanese engineer, researcher and educator.

Hiroyuki Matsunami is a Japanese engineer, researcher and educator. He was awarded the IEEE Edison Medal in 2023 for his pioneering contributions to the development of silicon carbide material and its applications in electronic power devices. Currently, he holds the position of professor emeritus at Kyoto University and serves as a specially appointed professor at Kyoto University of Advanced Science.

References

  1. "Where is the birthplace of Silicon Valley? Event aims to put the ". Mercury News. August 8, 2018. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
  2. 1 2 Kathleen O'Toole (April 28, 1999). "Video lessons may help cool kids' rage". Stanford University.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 David Morton (May 31, 2000). "An Oral History of James F. Gibbons". IEEE History Center.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Harry Sello (November 16, 2012). "Oral History of James F. "Jim" Gibbons" (PDF). Computer History Museum.
  5. "In Brief". Physics Today. 38 (1): 110. 1985. Bibcode:1985PhT....38a.110.. doi:10.1063/1.2813723 . Retrieved November 3, 2018.
  6. 1 2 "History of the School of Engineering". Stanford University. April 26, 2016.
  7. 1 2 "Engineering dean to take on new industrial relations role". Stanford University News Service. March 8, 1995. Archived from the original on June 14, 2016.
  8. McElreny, Victor K. (December 15, 1976). "Technology". New York Times. Retrieved November 6, 2018.
  9. "James F Gibbons, Professor (Research) of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus". Stanford University.
  10. 1 2 "Complete list of IEEE-Level Award Recipients and Citations" (PDF). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
  11. "Complete list of IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal recipients (PDF, 96 KB)" (PDF). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
  12. "List of IEEE Millennium Medal Recipients". Archived from the original on September 13, 2015.
  13. "List of Paul Rappaport Award Recipients".