Micron Technology $300K Gift Endows RIT Professorship

Note: Digital photograph available at http://www.rit.edu/news/pics/hirschman_karl.jpg

Karl Hirschman, of Henrietta, has been named Micron Technology Professor of Microelectronic Engineering in the Kate Gleason College of Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology.

The designation was made possible by a four-year $300,000 gift to RIT’s microelectronic engineering department from Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc., a leading developer and manufacturer of flash memory chips, which are used in numerous “smart” electronic devices. The gift supports undergraduate- and graduate-level research and studies in microelectronic engineering.

“Micron has hired over 20 RIT students, who are now working in its Boise and Manassas, Va., facilities,” Hirschman says. “Micron is aggressively recruiting for its Manassas site and is looking forward to staffing a new facility in Lehi, Utah—IM Flash Technologies—a joint venture between Micron Technology and Intel. Micron’s contribution to RIT will ensure that our students continue to get the best education in microelectronic engineering that this country has to offer.”

The gift also supports instruction on digital memory, Hirschman says. Non-volatile flash memory is used to store information even after electronic devices—such as computers, digital cameras, mobile phones and MP3 players—are turned off. Micron also makes CMOS image sensors for digital cameras and camera phones.

“This is a big boost for the program,” adds Harvey Palmer, dean of RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering.

Hirschman, who is also director of RIT’s Semiconductor & Microsystems Fabrication Laboratory, joined the RIT faculty in 1993. He earned a bachelor’s degree in microelectronic engineering and a master’s degree in electrical engineering, both from RIT, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Rochester.

Note: RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering is among the nation’s top-ranked engineering colleges. The college offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in applied statistics, engineering science, and computer, electrical, industrial and systems, mechanical, and microelectronic engineering and a doctoral degree in microsystems engineering. RIT was the first university to offer undergraduate degrees in microelectronic and software engineering. Founded in 1829, RIT enrolls 15,300 students in more than 340 undergraduate and graduate programs. RIT has one of the nation’s oldest and largest cooperative education programs.