2006 Mahboob Khan Outstanding Mentor Award Winners

The Mahboob Khan Outstanding Mentor Award recognizes individuals who, in serving as SRC Industry Liaisons, have had significant impact on the technical contributions of the research, have been instrumental in transferring the research results to industry, and are deeply committed to the education of graduate students. Nominations for individuals serving as Industry Liaisons are accepted from members of the SRC community including SRC-sponsored university researchers and graduate students.

Awards were presented during the 2006 Student Symposium to the following recipients:

Dan O'Connor, Jim Libous, Larry Gochberg, and Robert Gauthier

Ken Butler of Texas Instruments has guided an effective research program with Dr. Rob Daasch at Portland State and Professor Mohammad Tehranipoor at the the University of Connecticut . According to Dr. Tehranipoor, Dr. Butler has a special " ability to visualize a problem and derive solutions that are both innovative and practical." Rob Daasch notes that he "knows how to strike the balance between an unfettered pursuit of knowledge and a significant research problem facing the semiconductor industry."

Robert Gauthier of IBM's Semiconductor Research and Development Center in Essex Junction, was nominated by fellow employee Peter Cottrell. Dr. Cottrell indicates that Robert has developed a relationship with Elyse Rosenbaum and her students at the University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign. Over the past years, several students have interned at IBM under Dr. Gauthier's direction, students note that his encouragement during the internship resulted in successful completion of academic goals.

Larry Gochberg of Novellus has served as an Industry Liaison to Professor Mark Kushner for his tasks on Plasma Equipment and Process, both at the University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign and now at Iowa State University. According to nominator, John Kelly of Novellus, Dr. Gochberg is known for "providing advice and encouragement and freely sharing his perspective on technology development from a diverse career including the semiconductor and aerospace industries."

Advanced Micro Devices' Zoran Krivokapic has worked with TP Ma and Charles Ahn and their student Xia Hong at Yale University. Dr. Hong writes that Zoran makes visits to Yale once or twice a year and has an "in-depth discussion with each student, reviewing various aspects of his research project." Xia continues, "his knowledge of the state-of-art in semiconductor devices and processing, ... and his inspiring suggestions regarding new materials to study and novel device structures, have led to new research directions."

The team of Jim Libous and Dan O'Connor of IBM initially recruited Principal Investigator Dr. Madhavan Swaminathan of Georgia Tech in 1999, and have mentored him and his students continually. They have arranged numerous summer internships and made many visits to Georgia Tech to meet and consult with professor and students. The team's interactions has greatly contributed to the success of industry design efforts.

Sani Nassif of IBM was nominated Malgorzata Marik-Sadowska at UC/Santa Barabara for his " vision and genuine talent in selecting research problems that blend practical considerations with theoretical significance." Former student, Kai Wang Ph.D., wrote that Dr. Nassif managed him during a summer internship, then served on his doctoral committee. According to Wang "Dr. Nassif's vision and industry perspective provided invaluable suggestions and insightful comments" to the successful completion of his academic program.