IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Winter 2021 - 62

A Shining Beacon
Jim Meindl joined the Electrical Engineering (EE) Department at Stanford
University in September 1967. I had the great pleasure of working with
Jim from the day he arrived until the day he left to become provost at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in 1986.
Jim's goal at Stanford was clear from the beginning: to create the first
and best academic center in the world focused on the physics, technology, and application of ICs. He understood instinctively how to do that.
He collected a group of dedicated graduate students who could share
his enthusiasm for ICs and their applications. He found funding to create
a lab on campus where they could work, and he imparted his own conviction that the problems most worthy of their attention were problems
that would change people's lives. It was a worthy goal, one that would
have a long-term impact on our EE Department, our Medical School,
and well beyond.
However, the design of IC-based systems took a sharp turn in 1971
with the invention of the microprocessor. Now, the software that controlled the microprocessor became a critical part of system design, as
did application-specific sensors. Jim saw in this a new opportunity for
Stanford, one that would require new facilities and a new model for interaction between Stanford and its industrial partners. That opportunity
led to the creation of the Center for Integrated Systems, where Jim was
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responsible for designing the new fabrication facility that was critical to
the Center's success.
Jim's ability to lead at the highest levels made him a much sought-after
candidate for jobs at many other laboratories and universities. He turned
down many of these but finally left Stanford to become provost at RPI,
where he served with distinction for seven years, after which he accepted an appointment at Georgia Tech as the J.M. Pettit Professor of Electrical Engineering and director of the J.M. Pettit Microelectronics Center.
Jim was amply rewarded for this extended effort, receiving a number of very distinguished awards, among them, election to the National
Academy of Engineering in 1978, the IEEE Education Medal in 1990, and
the IEEE Medal of Honor in 2006. The citations for these awards offer
an accurate, if only partial, reflection of Jim's extraordinary leadership.
His 90 Ph.D. students offer another measure, one of which Jim was
especially proud. His beacon still shines for all of us at Stanford, at RPI,
and at Georgia Tech.
-Jim Gibbons
About the Author
Jim Gibbons joined Stanford University's electrical engineering faculty as an assistant professor in 1957, was appointed professor of electrical engineering in
1964, and served as dean of the School of Engineering from 1984 to 1996. He
built Stanford's first semiconductor processing laboratory (1958) and was instrumental in creating Stanford's Center for Integrated Systems (1980).

" The Chief " of Silicon Valley
Prof. Jim Meindl became my dissertation advisor in 1970, when Intel
was only two years old. That changed my life. I had never heard the
term Silicon Valley until my first day at the Stanford IC Lab, an amazing place in which Prof. Meindl's students talked of changing a world
in which personal computers and even calculators were not available.
The IC Lab gave us the opportunity to make transistors and ICs with
our own hands.
Many of Prof. Meindl's students called him " The Chief " or " J.D.M. "
because of his prowess at raising the significant funding needed to support all of us and the IC Lab. He never mentioned the enormity of this
task, which I did not fully appreciate for another decade, when I had to
raise money for my own company.
Jim also supported us on a personal level. During the last quarter
of my undergraduate education as a physics and chemistry major at
Dartmouth College, I took a single electrical engineering (EE) course-
and fell in love with EE to the extent that I abandoned my graduate
school position in applied physics at Stanford. After arriving at Stanford,
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IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE

I scrambled to find a paying job in the EE department. In our first meeting, I asked Jim how a metal-oxide semiconductor transistor worked.
He explained it to me carefully and lent me one of his books. Despite
my naivete, Jim hired me to run an epitaxial reactor in the IC Lab. He
said that with my chemistry background, I could support his other students-and that was enough to cover my tuition.
Later that fall, he overheard me say that I could not afford to fly home
for Thanksgiving-my favorite holiday-and invited me to his home for
Thanksgiving dinner. Prof. Jim Meindl was a kind man who enhanced
the lives of many in Silicon Valley.
-T.J. Rodgers
About the Author
Thurman John " T.J. " Rodgers is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He was a founder of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation and served 34 years as the company's CEO. Rodgers received 20 U.S. patents and has been inducted into the
Silicon Valley Hall of Fame. He serves on the board of several high-technology
companies in the areas of high-performance residential solar systems and utility-scale solar power plants, gallium nitride power transistors, and advanced
lithium-ion batteries.

IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Winter 2021

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