Intel chairman visits Purdue, highlights collaborative research
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Craig Barrett talked with Purdue faculty, researchers and the nine current Intel Fellowship students during a Discovery Park stop at the $58 million Birck Center.
In addition, Barrett, who also is chairman of the National Academy of Engineering, met with key administrators and Purdue President Martin C. Jischke.
"Intel enjoys a long history of collaboration and successes with Purdue University," Barrett said. "We look forward to advancing our joint efforts in technology research and educating the future generation. This collaboration is not only vital to Purdue and Intel but also for continued American technology leadership."
Intel has provided Purdue with nearly $15 million in funding for research grants, fellowships, equipment and curriculum development, including $2.8 million the past three years.
"The interdisciplinary focus of Discovery Park and the Birck Nanotechnology Center foster relationships with industry partners such as Intel," said George Adams, research development director at Birck. "And we believe Birck is a pre-eminent center for this country's cutting-edge research in nanotechnology."
The Birck Nanotechnology Center, which opened on Oct. 8, is the nation's premier facility designed explicitly to accommodate multidisciplinary nanotechnology research on a college campus.
Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation with annual revenue of $40 billion, develops technologies, products and initiatives to advance how people work and live.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company employs about 100,000 people around the world, including more than 600 Purdue graduates serving in a variety of capacities including principle engineers and senior managers. Kevin Kahn and Gene Meiran are Purdue alumni who have risen to become Intel Senior Fellows, the highest engineering ranking at the company.
A graduate of Stanford University, Barrett was named Intel's fourth president in 1997 and chief executive officer in 1998, succeeding Andrew Grove. Barrett retired from the CEO position when he turned 65 and became Intel chairman in May 2005. Paul Otellini replaced Barrett as Intel's president and CEO.
Barrett recently was appointed to the President's Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations and to the American Health Information Community.
He is a member of the National Academies Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century: An Agenda for American Science and Technology; co-chairman of the Business Coalition for Excellence in Education; a member of the board of trustees for the U.S. Council for International Business; co-chair of the National Innovation Initiative Leadership Council; and chairman of the National Academy of Engineering.
A longtime champion of education, Barrett will return to Indiana, where he will kick off the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Indianapolis on May 6. The weeklong event is the world's largest high school science fair, bringing together nearly 1,500 students from 49 countries, regions and territories to compete for more than $4 million in prizes. For information on the fair go online.
The Birck Center provided needed laboratory space, including the most advanced "clean rooms," for Purdue researchers focusing on advancements in semiconductor, or computer chip, manufacturing technologies. The clean rooms in Birck's Scifres Nanofabrication Laboratory provide the particle-free environment needed for fabricating micro- and nanoscale devices.
A portion of the lab that serves as a bioclean room also allows work with pathogen-detecting biochips and other biological nanotechnology. That aspect of Birck sets it apart, since the bioclean room is the only lab of its kind in a research facility on a university campus in the world.
Nanotechnology will have numerous applications in everything from super-small computers, spacecraft and microscopic machines, to tiny life-saving medical devices and a plethora of new materials. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, or only about 10 atoms wide. The letter "I" printed here is about one million nanometers wide.
The center is named for Michael and Katherine (Kay) Birck, of Hinsdale, Ill. The Bircks contributed $30 million for the building, and Michael Birck is a Purdue alumnus, a member of the Purdue board of trustees and chairman of Naperville, Ill.-based Tellabs Inc.
The Scifres Nanofabrication Lab is named for Purdue alumni Donald and Carol Scifres, who also donated $10 million to the Birck Center.
Writer: Phillip Fiorini, (765) 496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu
Sources: George Adams, (765) 494-2698, gba@purdue.edu
Lila Ibrahim, technical adviser to Craig Barrett, (765) 743-5024, lila.ibrahim@intel.com
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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