IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Winter 2021 - 67

A Tremendous Impact on Microelectronics and Nanotechnology Research at Georgia Tech
Jim Meindl's impact on microelectronics and nanotechnology research
at Georgia Tech is hard to overstate. I think it is fair to say that, without Jim's vision and leadership, we would not have the Marcus Nanotechnology Building at Georgia Tech, nor would we be a site of the
National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded National Nanotechnology
Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), let alone the coordinating office for
the whole NNCI network.
The NSF-funded NNCI (2015-2025) and its predecessor, the National
Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN) (2004-2015), provide
researchers from academia, large and small businesses, and government
with access to leading-edge fabrication and characterization tools, instrumentation, and expertise across all disciplines of nanoscale science,
engineering, and technology. Prof. Meindl served as director of the
Georgia Tech site and the southeastern hub of NNIN from 2004 until his
retirement in 2013. This decade included the opening of Georgia Tech's
Marcus Nanotechnology Building in 2009, which still features one of the
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largest academic cleanrooms in the country as well as a state-of-the-art
materials characterization facility.
Prof. Meindl's leadership and the resulting Georgia Tech participation in NNIN and, now, NNCI led to significant investment in the nanotechnology faculty and research infrastructure. Today, the Georgia Tech
nanotechnology core facilities offer access to more than 200 nanofabrication and characterization tools and support in excess of 1,000 annual
users, representing greater than 200 faculty groups across the campus
as well as more than 160 external users from academia, industry, and
government labs. Comparing this to the 250 annual users that the Georgia Tech site had in 2004 (the first year of NNIN) highlights the tremendous impact Jim Meindl had on microelectronics and nanotechnology
research at Georgia Tech.
-Oliver Brand
About the Author
Oliver Brand is a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
and the executive director of the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology
at Georgia Tech.

Providing Georgia Tech an " Unfair Advantage "
When we were in the planning stage of the Marcus Nanotechnology
Building, Jim stated that we needed to create a facility that would provide Georgia Tech an " unfair advantage " -that is, a facility that would
enable Georgia Tech to continue to recruit the caliber of faculty and
graduate students that would provide the advantage. It is precisely that
" field of dreams " argument that President Wayne Clough utilized in
securing the initial funding for the Marcus facility from the state. The

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argument is not without precedent. Absent the Pettit Microelectronics
Building, it is highly unlikely that Jim Meindl would have elected to finish
his remarkable academic career providing Georgia Tech a unique and
widely recognized " unfair advantage. "
-Roger Webb
About the Author
Roger Webb is a professor emeritus and the former Steve W. Chaddick School
Chair of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Georgia
Tech. His association with Georgia Tech and the ECE has spanned more than
60 years.

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