Troy, N.Y. — E. Fred Schubert, a pioneering semiconductor researcher and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Boston University, has been appointed Senior Distinguished Professor of the Future Chips Constellation at Rensselaer.

Internationally renowned for his work on semiconductor doping and light-emitting diodes, Schubert was selected for his sustained record of innovative research, excellence in teaching, and significant technological advances over his 20-year career. Schubert’s tenure will begin Sept. 3.

“Dr. Schubert brings substantial research activity and an exciting and productive new research thrust that will expand Rensselaer’s global reach and global impact,” said Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson. “Our research in future chips and our programs of graduate and undergraduate education in microelectronics and information technology will benefit from his energy, his expertise, and his innovative spirit.”

At Rensselaer, a constellation is a multidisciplinary team of senior faculty, junior faculty, and graduate students led by one or two outstanding stars in a particular research field of strategic and focal interest to the university. Rensselaer has chosen future chips as one of these focal areas. Schubert will take the lead in structuring the rest of the constellation, including attracting additional star or rising star faculty.

Today’s announcement of the creation of the Future Chips Constellation underscores Rensselaer’s commitment to growth at a time when many universities are reducing or holding the line on new faculty appointments. In the past two years alone, Rensselaer has hired 66 tenured or tenure-track faculty, of which 32 filled newly created positions.

The Future Chips Constellation will specialize in technologies based on compound semiconductors that have brought the world such well-known devices such as high-frequency transistors, light-emitting diodes, and lasers. The focus of this faculty constellation is on “leapfrog technology” that will usher in totally new advances in imaging, lighting, sensing, and communications. The technology will include three-dimensional chip architectures as well as optical, microwave, terahertz and even plasma wave communications. Such incredibly high-speed on-chip devices will transform communication, medicine, transportation, defense, entertainment, and other aspects of modern life.

Inventor Helped to Transform Traffic Signals and Runways
Schubert won the 2000 Discover Magazine Award and helped to transform traffic signals and airport runway lighting when he invented the resonant cavity light emitting diode (RCLED) and photon-recycling semiconductor LEDs (PRS-LED). Currently millions of RCLEDs are manufactured per year for transportation uses such as traffic lights and airport runways, and for optoelectronics such as panel-mount indicators. The PRS-LED uses a combination of blue-green light and red-yellow light wavelengths to create white light with potentially unprecedented luminous efficiency. This kind of white light has been nearly impossible to create in the past and could lead to more efficient indoor and outdoor lighting.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration Planned
Schubert will provide experienced leadership to research in the area of compound semiconductor materials and devices. He also will build strong and broad interdisciplinary collaborations with faculty and major research centers at Rensselaer, including the Center for Integrated Electronics, the Nanotechnology Center, and the Lighting Research Center.

“There are great opportunities and even greater challenges ahead of us,” said Schubert. “I am excited to become part of the Rensselaer community and will not rest until we accomplish Rensselaer’s bold research goals. Dr. Jackson’s vision for Rensselaer is pioneering. It is an honor to be selected to head a constellation.”

Research in future chips will focus on compound semiconductor materials and devices, particularly in the field of high-power electronic devices and high-efficiency light emitters. The program will consist of research underlying material science and development of novel material structures (e.g. superlattices, nanostructures) to improve materials, the identification of performance limits of semiconductor light emitters, invention of new ways to overcome these limits, the demonstration of devices with improved performance characteristics, and the application of light emitters in information technology areas such as communications and sensing applications.

Education and Honors
Schubert received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Stuttgart in 1978 and 1981, respectively. He was a member of the scientific staff at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research from 1981-1985, and in 1986 he was awarded a Ph.D. with honors from the University of Stuttgart.

In 1985 Schubert joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in New Jersey as a postdoctoral research associate, becoming a member of the technical staff and a principal investigator in 1988. In 1995, he was named professor of electrical and computer engineering at Boston University, director of the Semiconductor Devices Research Laboratory, and an affiliated faculty member of the Boston University Photonics Center.

Schubert is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, and the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE). He also was the recipient of the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Award in 1999. Schubert holds more than 30 patents.

Contact: Patricia Azriel
Phone: (518) 276-6531
E-mail: N/A