IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Fall 2016 - 112

On 8 May 2009, Lew Terman talked at the IEEE Milestone Ceremony on the semiconductor
planar process and ICs at the Fairchild Original Building, where the first IC was developed
in 1959.

Lew Terman giving a talk.

Fun FaCTS aBOuT LEw
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112

He spent 20+ years as a fast
pitch softball player and led his team
to win the finals of the Westchester
County Fast Pitch Tournament.
He had season tickets to the New York
Rangers before the National Hockey
League expanded.
He played the trumpet in college.
He was part of a committee that wrote
the constitution and bylaws of the
SSCS.

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that JSSC is the industry's lifeline in
solid-state circuits. Of course, as with
most jobs, there were challenges.
"It was challenging to stay on
schedule and making sure that nothing fell through the cracks," Lew said.
"A unique challenge at the time that I
was EIC was that we received a number
of papers from authors overseas, and
English was not their first language.
This problem has now vanished, a
strong tribute to the increasing literacy in English in non-U.S. authors over
the years."
Being an SSCS member has benefited Lew both professionally and
personally. "The lifelong involvement with leaders in the technical
field and the opportunity to meet
them, talk to them about technical issues, the Society, and the IEEE
have been very beneficial," Lew said.
"Being an SSCS member provided
me with much of the information I
needed in my professional career.
It also pushed me out of my comfort zone and enabled me to become
comfortable with working in different environments, meeting new people, and trying new things."
Outside of his work with SSCS,
Lew joined the IBM Watson Research
Center, after receiving his Ph.D.

IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE

degree from Stanford in 1961, and
spent more than 45 years there. He
served as a research staff member
and was also a first- and secondlevel manager. He served two terms
on the research technical planning
staff as well. Lew took a two-year
stint from the Watson Center to act
as president of the IBM Academy of
Technology, a community of the
top technical minds in IBM, providing technical advice to IBM senior
management. He returned to Watson
as the associate director of the Systems Department of Research and
then retired in 2006.
In 2008, Lew was the president and
CEO of the IEEE. Prior to that, he was
the Technical Activities Board (TAB)
treasurer for two terms (1995-1998),
TAB vice president in 2001, IEEE Publication Services and Products Board
treasurer in 2003, and Division 1
director from 2004 to 2005. He was
also chair of the IEEE Awards Board
from 2013 to 2014. Lew is a Fellow of
the IEEE and received the prestigious
IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in
Solid-State Circuits in 1995. He is a
member of the U.S. National Academy
of Engineering.
Outside of his professional life,
Lew is an aficionado of early jazz
music. Everything from Louis Armstrong and King Oliver to Lu Watters
and Turk Murphy is constantly playing in his home. Lew and his wife
Bobbie enjoy sports-softball, basketball, tennis, and running. In their
free time, they enjoy going to plays
and musicals and attending the Metropolitan Opera. Lew and Bobbie are
president and secretary, respectively,
of the Twin Lakes Water Works, a
community water system with about
90 users-large enough to be subject
to all water system rules and regulations of a major city.
Lew Terman has been and continues
to be a valuable member of the SSCS
and the solid-state circuits community.
-Abira Sengupta

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Fall 2016