John D Cressler Seminar – October 15, 2014
Two Talks for the Price of One!
Wednesday, October 15, 2014, University of Vermont, Room Perkins 107
“What History Can Teach Us: Lessons for Today from Medieval Spain”
John D. Cressler (novelist)
AND
“Recent Research Results in SiGe Devices, Circuits and Systems”
John D. Cressler (professor)
Schlumberger Chair Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Tech
Abstract
This presentation will consist of two separate talks; one cultural, one technical. The first part centers on my historical fiction, which is intended to break open medieval Moorish Spain for a modern audience. We will explore this unique time period and the lessons that are singularly relevant if we hope to ever find a creative solution to the religious conflict and human suffering that so defines today’s broken world. The second part deals with a more traditional topic: my research team’s recent advances in the realm of Si/SiGe HBTs and the circuits that can be built from them, new opportunities that may result, and the challenges we continue to face moving forward. I will emphasize recent work on the strong coupling of devices-to-circuits, a research venue I consider one of the “final frontiers” in this field.
John D. Cressler received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1990. From 1984 to 1992, he was on the research staff at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, and from 1992 to 2002 he served on the faculty at Auburn University. In 2002, he joined the faculty at Georgia Tech, and is currently Schlumberger Chair Professor of Electronics in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The basic thrust of Cressler’s research centers on Si-based (SiGe/strained-Si) heterostructure devices, circuits and systems for next-generation applications within the global electronics infrastructure. He and his students have published over 600 scientific papers in this field and he has graduated 43 Ph.D. students during his academic career. He was elected Fellow of the IEEE in 2001, and was awarded the 2010 Class of 1940 W. Howard Ector Outstanding Teacher Award (Georgia Tech’s top teaching award), the 2011 IEEE Leon Kirchmayer Graduate Teaching Award (the IEEE’s top graduate teaching award), and the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award (the highest honor Georgia Tech bestows on its faculty). Cressler’s books include: Silicon-Germanium Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors, Reinventing Teenagers: the Gentle Art of Instilling Character in Our Young People, Silicon Heterostructure Handbook, Silicon Earth, Extreme Environment Electronics, and the historical novels Emeralds of the Alhambra and Shadows in the Shining City, love stories set in medieval Muslim Spain.