IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Winter 2021 - 69

A True Leader
True leadership can be an elusive quality. I witnessed it during my employment by James D. Meindl at Georgia Tech. I was inspired each day
by his zeal and determination in his highly effective leadership among
colleagues in academia, government, and industry. I nicknamed him
the " Wizard of the Nanotechnology Research Center " because he easily spun the same caring, collaborative web within our staff from 2002
to 2012.
In triple roles as educator, business director, and personal assistant, I
watched the Wizard greet everyone with a smile and a calm, pleasant
demeanor and then listen intently during each conversation. He enthusiastically led weekly staff meetings where roundtable sharing of successes was encouraged. I recorded, as researchers shared and listened to
other engineers, technical and administrative staff, and students equally.
The tone of sincere respect uplifted us all. We actively celebrated special events, such as birthdays, weddings, and baby showers as well as
costume and pie-baking contests. Professors vied for positions as honored judges. One most special occasion was a retirement celebration for
30-year custodial staff member, Joyce. The Wizard surprised her with a
dozen red roses.
From 2012 to 2016, the Wizard and I developed a special cadre of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
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Outreach Ambassadors. With leadership communication training,
graduate students created and shared an experiment that explained
their research. Each ambassador actively volunteered in local K-12
STEM Outreach events. This program reached more than 2,500
young learners each year. Videos of each ambassador explaining his
or her research extended our project, adding value to their future
opportunities.
The Wizard's guidance molded the next exciting stage of my life,
when I created a business website, https://be4steminc.com/, that highlights more than 60 YouTube videos plus early elementary STEM offerings. His inspiration continues in my recently authored series of uplifting
future STEM career lessons at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/
Store/Be4steminc. My inspiration, along with that of scores of others, is
the legacy of this true leader.
-Diana Palma
About the Author
Diana Palma is a retired educator, business director, author, and owner of
Be4STEMinc, specializing in Pre-K-2 science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM) education materials. She served as the personal assistant
to James Meindl, Georgia Tech professor emeritus, from 2012 to 2016, establishing the Volunteer STEM Outreach Ambassador program, and, since 2016,
she has continued to produce STEM Outreach materials for early elementary
teachers and parents.

A Perceptive, Optimistic, and Always Encouraging Mentor
Prof. Jim Meindl's academic career was almost perfectly synchronized
with the rise of the microelectronics industry over the second half of the
20th century. Jim's Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in 1958 came
the same year as the invention of the integrated circuit by Bob Noyce
and Jack Kilby and just 11 years after the invention of the transistor at
Bell Labs in 1947. At Stanford University, Jim was a giant hands-on contributor to the rise of Silicon Valley, as Stanford and Berkeley universities
had a huge impact on the technology, physics, and entrepreneurship
that made the Valley world famous.
I first got to know Jim closely when Irwin Federman, our lead investor in
SunDisk, my start-up company, asked me to go meet Jim at the Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute for a 1-h interview to get his up or down opinion of
our new flash memory technology-would it even work? Jim and I got
into a deep discussion in his office that lasted the full day, with drawings
on the board and getting deep into the quantum physics of electronic
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tunneling. At the end of the day, Jim agreed to join our board of directors
as technical advisor, which position he held until his retirement.
For the following two decades, Jim was an amazing mentor, always
encouraging and optimistic, even when we were deep in the hole, and
always perceptive of the most important challenges that we faced. Despite his technological and educational achievements and influence in
the technology community, Jim was genuinely humble and soft spoken,
bringing his natural warmth and friendly smile. He was much loved and
respected by his students and colleagues.
I consider myself lucky and privileged to have known Jim Meindl for
the past 30 years. May he rest in peace.
-Eli Harari
About the Author
Eli Harari founded SanDisk Corp., a pioneer in flash technology, in 1988 and
served as its CEO from its founding until his retirement in 2010. His awards include the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal (2009) and the U.S. National Medal of
Technology and Innovation (2012).

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IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Winter 2021

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