Troy, N.Y. — Michael Shur, the Patricia W. and C. Sheldon Roberts ’48 Chaired Professor in Solid State Electronics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Shur is one of 376 newly elected fellows recognized for their efforts to advance science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished, according to AAAS. The announcement was made in today’s issue of Science.

Cited for “distinguished contributions to novel semiconductor devices and integrated circuits,” Shur will be honored Feb. 18, 2006, at the Fellows Forum during the 2006 AAAS Annual Meeting in St. Louis, Mo.

Shur is director of Rensselaer’s Center for Broadband Data Transport Science and Technology. He was recently part of a multinational team that created a nanotransistor that generates a terahertz signal, which may lead to a new generation of terahertz devices for use in biotechnology and microelectronics.

“Professor Shur is an internationally recognized scholar in his field, working at the leading edge of research into the development of materials and processes designed to enhance the performance of semiconductors, while decreasing the cost and size of these devices,” said Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson, chair of the board and past president of AAAS. “This work will help researchers understand how to obtain more speed from computers that are already operating near the limits set by the laws of physics. We applaud him for the contribution he makes, and for this honor.”

Shur is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a fellow of the American Physical Society, a fellow of the Electrochemical Society, a fellow of the World Innovation Foundation, vice president of the IEEE Sensor Council, a former chair of the U.S. Chapter of Commission D of the International Union of Radio Science, editor-in-chief of the International Journal of High Speed Electronics and Systems, editor-in-chief of Selected Topics in Electronics and Systems, and a member of the honorary editorial board of Solid State Electronics magazine. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn, Germany, named Shur a Humboldt Research Award Winner in 2002. This prize supports his collaborative research in Germany at Walter Schottky Institute in Munich.

Shur joined the Rensselaer faculty in 1996. He earned a doctorate in physics from the A.F. Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology in St. Petersburg, Russia, an honorary doctorate from St. Petersburg State Technical University, and a master’s in electrical engineering from the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute.

About AAAS
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of one million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, and more.

Contact: Jason Gorss
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E-mail: gorssj@rpi.edu