James F. Gibbons

From ETHW

James F. Gibbons
James F. Gibbons
Birthdate
1931/09/19
Birthplace
Leavenworth, KS, USA
Associated organizations
Stanford University
Awards
IEEE Jack A. Morton Award

Biography

James F. Gibbons was a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, Stanford, California. His principal research interests were in the fields of ion implantation, laser annealing and solar energy. He has directed the dissertation research of 30 Ph. D. students and has been author or co-author of 105 papers on semiconductor device analysis, process physics and solar energy.

James F. Gibbons was born September 19, 1931, in Leavenworth, Kansas, and educated at Northwestern (BSEE, 1953) and Stanford (Ph. D., 1956). He held National Science Foundation and National Academy of Sciences Fellowships for graduate study, and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for postdoctoral research at Cambridge University, Cambridge, England (1956-57).

Dr. Gibbons joined the Department of Electrical Engineering faculty, Stanford University, in 1957, and was appointed Professor in 1964. His career as an educator includes the publication of three textbooks on semiconductor electronics, service on several national committees concerned with planning for higher education (HEW 1969-74, PSAC 1971-73, NIE 1973-76), and the conception and development of special educational programs for racial minorities in engineering, prison inmates and off-campus science and engineering students his book, Projected Range Statistics (with W. S. Johnson and S. W. Mylroie), is widely used in the semiconductor industry for the design of ion implantation devices in fabrication processes. Professor Gibbons holds several patents on semiconductor device structures.

From 1964 to 1970, Professor Gibbons served the IEEE as Associate Editor of the Transactions Electron Devices and the National Science Foundation as a member and later Chairman (1967-70) of the Graduate Fellowship Panel. He also served as a member on the U.S. Scientific Team for Science Exchange on Ion Implantation in Japan, China and the Soviet Union.

Professor Gibbons' dedication and contributions, as a student, educator and researcher, have earned him many awards and honors: the Eshbach Award (Northwestern, 1953), membership in Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu and Sigma Xi, elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Western Electric Fund Award for excellence in teaching, membership in the National Academy of Engineering, Northern California Solar Energy Association Award for Outstanding Achievement, and the Tau Beta Pi Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Engineering Teaching.

James F. Gibbons sat on the Board of Directors at Avantek, Inc. and was Founder and Chairman of Solar Energy Research Associates. Jim and his wife, Lynn, have three children, a son, Robert, and twin daughters, Laura and Sally, and reside in Palo Alto, California. His major avocation is playing trombone with various local musicians, but he also enjoys jogging and cycling.

Further Reading

James Gibbons oral history