AMD President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su continues to rack up accolades for her excellent business acumen and ability to turn a company on the brink of bankruptcy into one that’s now revered for its advancements in high-performance computing. Her latest award is the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal, the IEEE’s highest semiconductor award for “leadership in groundbreaking semiconductor products and successful business strategies that contributed to the strength of the microelectronics industry.”
Ironically, the Noyce Medal is sponsored by Intel. Su’s award of the Robert N. Noyce Medal is notable in that she’s the first woman to have ever received the award.
From IEEE Spectrum:
Her interest in semiconductors was sparked at MIT. As a doctoral candidate, Su was one of the first researchers to look into silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology, according to an MIT Technology Review article about her. The then-unproven technique increased transistors’ efficiency by building them atop layers of an insulating material. Today SOI is used either to boost the performance of microchips or to reduce their power requirements.
Su revealed in an interview that her parents wanted her to become a doctor, but she ended up studying electrical engineering instead because she liked building hardware.
“It might surprise people that my parents would have preferred that I became a medical doctor,” she says, laughing. “That was the most well-respected profession when I was growing up. But I never really liked the sight of blood. I ended up getting a Ph.D., which I guess was the next best thing.”
Source: IEEE Spectrum