Birck Nanotechnology Center director wins prestigious THERMI Award

(Nanowerk News) Ali Shakouri, the Mary Jo and Robert L. Kirk Director of Purdue University's Birck Nanotechnology Center, is the 2014 recipient of the prestigious THERMI Award for his contributions to the field of semiconductor thermal management.
Ali Shakouri
Ali Shakouri
Shakouri, who came to Purdue from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2011 to lead Discovery Park's Birck Nanotechnology Center, received the award Thursday (March 13) during the 30th annual Thermal Measurement, Modeling & Management Symposium, known as SEMI-THERM, in San Jose, Calif. Shakouri also is a professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Each year, SEMI-THERM recognizes the recipient's history of contributions to crucial thermal issues affecting the performance of semiconductor devices and systems. The voting body consists of former THERMI winners and the current year general chair of SEMI-THERM.

The SEMI-THERM Educational Foundation (STEF) is dedicated to worldwide educational opportunities and resources within the electronics thermal engineering community. Its mission is to provide programs for ongoing professional development, technical networking, and engagement of academia and industry in pursuit of innovation and excellence.

In 2013, Kenneth E. Goodson, a professor and vice chair of mechanical engineering at Stanford University, won the THERMI Award.
In 2007 Shakouri co-founded Microsanj to develop and commercialize advanced high-resolution thermal imaging systems for the semiconductor industry. He currently serves as chairman of the Technical Advisory Board for Microsanj.
Before coming to Purdue, Shakouri was a professor of electrical engineering at UCSC. His research focuses on nanoscale heat and current transport in semiconductor devices, high-resolution thermal imaging, micro refrigerators on a chip and waste-heat recovery. Shakouri is working with colleagues in engineering and social sciences on a new sustainability curriculum. He initiated an international summer school on renewable energy sources in practice.
He also directs the Thermionic Energy Conversion Center, a multi-university collaboration including Purdue that is working to improve direct thermal to electric energy conversion technologies. The project is funded by the Office of Naval Research and the Defense Sciences Office at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA.
Shakouri received the Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering in 1999, a National Science Foundation Career Award in 2000 and the UCSC School of Engineering FIRST Professor Award in 2004.
He received his master's and doctoral degrees from the California Institute of Technology in 1995 and a bachelor's degree in engineering from Telecom ParisTech in France in 1990.
The Birck Nanotechnology Center, an 187,000-square-foot facility, involves more than 300 faculty, staff and graduate students from 36 schools and departments at Purdue, advancing research in nanoscale science and engineering with applications in areas such as health care, energy, communication, computer technology and food safety.
Source: Purdue University