Awards
Awards at the EMS
Two sets of awards are given each year at the Symposium. To honor Ross Tucker, who contributed significantly to the advancement of the technology of materials used in semiconductor electronics, the Ross Tucker Award is given each year to a pair of graduate students at UC Berkeley and Stanford. To recognize leaders even earlier in their careers, EMS awards the NPS Ralph Krause Award. Ralph Krause Award is given to an outstanding student at Naval Postgraduate School to recognize his/her contribution to scientific field.
About Ross Tucker
The Ross N. Tucker Award memorializes Dr. Ross N. Tucker, who contributed significantly to the advancement of the technology of materials used in semiconductor electronics. Dr. Tucker's involvement in materials science began while he was a student at the University of Utah, and continued under a faculty appointment at the University of Illinois, where he studied ionic conduction in solids. In 1962, Dr. Tucker joined the Research and Development Laboratories of Fairchild Semiconductor, where he gathered around him a technical group skilled in the analysis and solution of the materials-related problems encountered in semiconductor processing. Dr. Tucker's personal contributions to the development of high-quality epitaxial deposition of thin layers of silicon, and to the understanding of the properties of thin films of polycrystalline silicon are of special significance. Many present state-of-the-art devices owe their manufacturability to the efforts of Dr. Tucker and the group that he led. After joining Intel Corporation in 1972, Dr. Tucker continued to research the relationship between crystalline defects and semiconductor device performance. His untimely death in January of 1974 is a severe loss to his many friends, relatives and associates, and to the semiconductor industry.
Not only was Dr. Tucker a dedicated and talented scientist, he was an accomplished person in the fullest sense of the word. Complementing his demonstrated scientific achievements, are Dr. Tucker's artistic pursuits including an active interest in music and art. His collection of Japanese wood-block prints is among the finest assembled by a private collector. He was an able and effective teacher, and an inspiration to those who had the good fortune to work as his associates.
The funds for the Ross N. Tucker Award have been donated by Ross Tucker's family, and by Dr. Gordon Moore, a close friend and associate of Ross from his days at Fairchild until his death in 1974.
The Award Committee has been in operation since 1976, when the first award was made. Past members of the Committee include friends and associates of Ross, as well as leading experts in materials science who have worked in areas that were of interest to Ross. These include Dr. Ilan Blech, Prof. Fernando Ponce, Dr. Ted Kamins, Dr. Gene Meieran, Mr. Alan MacPherson, as well as members of the Electronic Materials Symposium Committee. The award is presently administered by UC Berkeley and Stanford.
About LCDR Ralph Krause Award
Naval Officer Ralph Krause attended the NPS in 1940 and 1941 in Electronics. He was one of the senior officers leading WWII research in the Navy, this group of about dozen mid‐career officers were known as the “Bird Dogs” during the war. They were the nucleus that overlooked critical R&D between industry, universities and operational use in the theater. The “Birddogs” initiated ONR in 1946. LCDR Krause was Scientific Advisor to the SECNAV in WWII, and was liaison to MIT Radiation Laboratory and with Prof. Fred Terman (known as the Father of Silicon Valley) the head of the Harvard Radio Research Laboratory. Following WWII LCDR Krause led the Boston and San Francisco ONR branches and in 1949 joined Drs. Terman and Tressider at Stanford and helped establish the Stanford Research Institute (via encouragement from ONR).
The NPS LCDR Ralph Krause Award for excellence in materials related research is chosen from the highest ranked NPS student at the poster competition at the Electronic Materials Symposium held each spring in Silicon Valley.