IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Winter 2021 - 66

Commitment to Developing Early-Career Individuals
I first met Jim Meindl in 1974, soon after I joined Bruce Deal's group at
Fairchild Semiconductor and after I completed grad school. Bruce and
Jim initiated a program to generate the necessary experimental data, develop fundamental understanding, and ultimately formulate models for
various processing steps in IC manufacture (e.g., silicon oxidation and
dopant diffusion). Bruce and I met with Jim's group every two to four
weeks; through that program, I got to know some of Jim's graduate students: Jim Plummer, Krishna Saraswat, and Rafael Reif.
In addition to Jim's amazing insight and perspective on devices and
circuits, he was relentless in his commitment to developing early- (and
later-) career individuals. For instance, approximately one year after we
began the meetings, Bruce had to be out of town during our scheduled
session, so I was the only person there from Fairchild. Jim approached
me after the meeting and said that he was grateful that Bruce was involved in this work but that he especially appreciated having the next
generation of scientists and engineers involved since they could offer
new perspectives and directions-he thanked me for my participation

and contributions. This attitude pervaded Jim's entire career; certainly,
his time at Georgia Tech followed this pattern in that he always offered
encouragement and mentoring to everyone around him.
Jim and I spoke on a regular basis after I joined Georgia Tech; I
also served on a number of his Ph.D. students' thesis committees. A
major advantage to these interactions was that Jim made it clear that
he was always open to new ideas and ways of looking at situations
and problems. For example, in 2006, I became interested in etching
copper films using hydrogen-based plasmas at room temperature or
below. Since this was a radical idea at the time, I did not have the
funds to investigate this possibility and obtain preliminary data for a
proposal. After a brief discussion, Jim allowed my students two days
in the clean room to try out the idea. The results initiated a new approach to patterning copper layers, and government and industrial
funds and efforts followed.
-Dennis Hess
About the Author

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Dennis Hess is a professor emeritus in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular
Engineering at Georgia Tech.

The Ultimate Gentleman
Jim was a mentor, and he and his wife, Freddie, were friends. I have many
fond memories of our interactions and the fulfillment and appreciation I
always felt when spending time with Jim. He was the ultimate gentleman.
Everything he did was done with grace, respect, and care for others.
One of the gentleman's many qualities was that he was always extremely well prepared. The " selling " of what became the Marcus Nanotechnology Building is a good example. Jim had discussed the concept
with Roger Webb and me on a number of occasions, and we encouraged him to pursue it. At some point, I felt it was time to present it to a
larger segment of the Georgia Tech leadership, including the president,
Wayne Clough.
I organized such a meeting and have a great memory of Jim going
through his presentation (words, not PowerPoint slides!) that lasted no
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IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE

more than 10-15 min: it was so limpid and compelling that, at the end of
it, there was basically no question to be asked! Because of the many and
expensive initiatives Georgia Tech was already engaged in at that time,
I had expected some tough discussions and came prepared to support
Jim. Help was not needed; basically, the answer was " Let's figure out
the way to do it. " Jim had, in his remarkable, compelling, and respectful
way, exemplified one more time what it is to be an institutional builder
and showed the path forward.
-Jean-Lou A. Chameau
About the Author
Jean-Lou A. Chameau is the former provost of Georgia Tech, president emeritus
of the California Institute of Technology, and president emeritus of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. Prior to serving as provost at Georgia
Tech, he was dean of the College of Engineering and director of the School of
Civil and Environmental Engineering.

IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Winter 2021

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