James D. Meindl is a professor emeritus of the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is the founding director of the Nanotechnology Research Center and served as the Joseph M. Pettit Chair Professor in Microsystems and the director of the Microelectronics Research Center at Georgia Tech from 1993 until his retirement in 2013.
Meindl was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and received his PhD, MS, and BS degrees in 1958, 1956, and 1955, respectively, in electrical engineering at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University). He has been an outstanding leader in four distinct venues for over 50 years. From 1959–67, at the U.S. Army Electronics Laboratories, Meindl served consecutively as section leader, branch chief, and founding director of the Integrated Electronics Division, made up of 80 people with responsibility for all USAEL R&D efforts in microelectronics. From 1967–1986, at Stanford University, he served as founding director of the Integrated Circuits Laboratory, director of the Stanford Electronics Laboratories, associate dean for research in the School of Engineering, and founding co-director of the Center for Integrated Systems. From 1986–1993, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), he served as senior vice president for academic affairs and provost.
At Georgia Tech, he was the director of the Microelectronics Research Center for 20 years and also was the founding director of the SIA/DOD Interconnect Focus Center, leading a national team of more than 60 faculty members from MIT, Stanford, RPI, Cornell University, SUNY-Albany, and Georgia Tech. In 2009, he became founding director of the Nanotechnology Research Center, the largest dual facility cleanroom in the southeastern United States. This record of leadership in microelectronics and nanotechnology is unmatched.
Meindl has published over 600 articles and four books, and he has been issued 23 patents. His 90 PhD graduates from Stanford, RPI, and Georgia Tech have had a profound impact on the semiconductor industry and on academia in many roles, including corporate CEOs and university presidents and deans. Meindl’s leadership and technical awards are many, but a short list includes the 2006 IEEE Medal of Honor, 2004 Semiconductor Research Corporation Aristotle Award, 2001 Georgia Tech Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award, 2000 IEEE Third Millennium Medal, 1999 SIA University Research Award, 1991 American Society for Engineering Education Benjamin Garver Lamme Medal, and 1990 IEEE Education Medal. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Life Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Eminent Member of Eta Kappa Nu, and life member of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society.