SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dr. David K. Lam, widely known as the founder of Lam Research Corporation in 1980, and currently chairman of both Multibeam Corporation and the David Lam Group, has been selected for induction into the distinguished Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame. Dr. Lam will be formally inducted on February 19, 2013 at the Engineer’s Week Banquet hosted by Silicon Valley Engineering Council (SVEC), an umbrella organization of more than 40 member and affiliate professional societies representing 60,000 engineers, scientists and technologists in the region.
The announcement of four 2013 inductees was made yesterday at SVEC's annual open house held at the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) headquarters in San Jose. Other eminent technologists selected for induction include: Dr. Aart de Geus, Chairman of the Board and Co-CEO of Synopsis, Inc.; Dr. Martin Hellman, Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University; and Dr. David Hodges, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley.
Among earlier luminaries inducted into the SVEC Hall of Fame were Intel co-founders Robert N. Noyce and Gordon E. Moore; Hewlett-Packard co-founders William R. Hewlett and David Packard; Douglas Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse; and John L. Hennessy, president of Stanford University.
“Dr. Lam is one of the true pioneers of Silicon Valley exemplifying the entrepreneurial spirit of the region,” said Stanley Myers, a 2008 inductee into the SVEC Hall of Fame and currently chairman of the Awards Committee. “His outstanding contributions can be seen in the founding of one of Silicon Valley’s most successful high-tech enterprises as well his industry and community leadership. Dr. Lam continues to encourage innovation and entrepreneurialism as a selfless mentor to startups and as an advisor to high growth ventures.”
Dr. Lam earned his Sc.D. doctoral degree in Chemical Engineering from MIT in 1973 after switching from the field of controlled nuclear fusion. Before entering MIT, he completed undergraduate studies in Engineering Physics at the University of Toronto. Prior to founding Lam Research in 1980, he worked on research and engineering in plasma etching at Texas Instruments and Hewlett-Packard.
As CEO of Lam Research in the early 1980s, he guided the launch and market penetration of the company’s first plasma etcher for semiconductor manufacturing as it gained a foothold in Japan. Born in China, he became the first Asian-American to take a company public on the NASDAQ market in 1984.
Dr. Lam has regularly participated in community, educational and governmental organizations. In the early 1990s, he took part in Joint Venture Silicon Valley, leading an initiative that helped small businesses enter global markets. As president/chairman of AAMA, he transformed the small Asian-American technology association into a multinational network of entrepreneurs and professionals. In 1989, President Bush (41) appointed him to the Minority Business Development Commission. Ron Brown, the late Commerce Secretary under President Clinton, selected him in 1994 to serve on the Presidential Business Development Mission to China.
Dr. Lam mentors high-tech ventures as a board member and through the David Lam Group, which he formed in 1995 to provide growth management advice. He currently serves as chairman of Multibeam Corporation, a developer of multi-column electron-beam systems for lithography and inspection in microchip production.
About Multibeam Corporation
Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Multibeam Corporation is a leading developer of multi-column e-beam technologies that add high value to semiconductor lithography by doing away with costly masks. The company’s Complementary E-Beam Lithography (CEBL) system augments optical lithography at critical layers by eliminating expensive optical multiple patterning at 20nm processing nodes and beyond. Multibeam’s systems can also be cost-efficiently leveraged as primary lithographic tools for low-volume production of ASICs as well as in multi-project wafer programs. Multibeam’s patent-protected e-beam technologies encompass deployment of multi-column arrays to perform wafer inspection. For more information, visit www.multibeamcorp.com.