Richard Gottscho

President, SemiSan LLC, Retired EVP & CTO, LAM Research and advisor to Rapidus

Dr. Richard A. Gottscho is a leader in the semiconductor industry, best known for his transformative impact at Lam Research, where he most recently served as Executive Vice President and Strategic Advisor to the CEO for Innovation Ecosystem. In this role, he championed strategic partnerships across academia, government, and industry to accelerate innovation in semiconductor manufacturing. Previously, Rick held the role of Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, where he led major initiatives in lithography and process technology. As EVP of Lam’s Global Products Group, he had full business responsibility for the company’s core product lines.

Since retiring from Lam in March 2025, Rick has become a consultant and advisor to numerous high-tech companies. He serves on advisory boards to SK Hynix, Rapidus, Periodic Labs, Pauli Semiconductor, Mesoscopic Technologies, and Gauss Labs. He is a member of the board of directors for MetOx, a company that manufactures superconducting wire, and Covalent, a metrology and inspection service company.

Before his time at Lam, Rick spent over a decade at Bell Laboratories, where he led research in materials processing, advanced packaging, and flat panel displays. Widely recognized as a thought leader in plasma science and semiconductor technology, Rick is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and American Vacuum Society, and a frequent keynote speaker at global conferences and universities.

In 2016, he was inducted into the U.S. National Academy of Engineering for “solutions to plasma etch technology and productivity challenges in scaling semiconductor devices from the micro- to nanometer levels.”