Education Alliance

Simon Karecki Fellowship Fund

The Education Alliance, a private foundation of Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), in conjunction with the SRC/SEMATECH Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing (Center), created the Simon Karecki Fellowship Fund in 2002 to honor the memory of Dr. Karecki and his outstanding contributions to the Center research as an SRC Graduate Fellow.

About Simon Karecki

Simon Karecki was born in Cracow, Poland on September 22, 1972, the only child of Richard and Anna Karecki. The Kareckis were determined that their son would have a good education. To this end, they immigrated to the United States where Simon graduated at the top of his class at Regis High School in New York City. He received the Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Yale University in 1994, graduating magna cum laude with Distinction in the Major. He received both his Master of Science and Ph.D. Degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1997 and 2000, respectively. His list of honors and awards was quite long and included a Motorola/SRC Graduate Fellowship, and an SRC Inventor Recognition Award. At the time of his graduation from MIT, he had nearly forty publications and conference presentations to his credit. In September 2000, he joined IBM Corporation in Hopewell Junction, NY.

Simon was a compassionate and honorable young man, and his contributions to the semiconductor industry were significant even before he completed his doctoral studies. His research in developing novel environmentally benign chemistries for etching processes in semiconductor fabrication was well known within the Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing. His work on environmentally benign Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (RECVD) chamber cleaning made possible some of the cleaning chemistries and techniques widely used today by the semiconductor industry. Moreover, his research on environmentally benign plasma etching of silicon dioxide films provided some of the pioneering ideas the industry is exploring today. Perhaps his greatest contribution to the future success of the Center was his ability to build bridges among the semiconductor manufacturing companies, the supplier community and different research groups within the Center.

The Fund

The Simon Karecki Fellowship Fund was created in Simon's memory to continue the research that was his passion and to provide other outstanding young people with the opportunity to make their contributions to environmental research. The Fund will make an annual cash award or fellowship for outstanding contributions to environmental research.

The Awards

Cash awards from the Simon Karecki Fellowship Fund are made at the discretion of the Education Alliance. The Awards are based on academic excellence; demonstrated concern for the earth's environment, including significant contribution to research in environmentally benign semiconductor manufacturing; demonstrated ability for technical communication; and demonstrated ability to work with others and foster cooperation.

The Simon Karecki Fellowship Fund is sustained as follows:

Contributions to the fund may be made as charitable gifts through the SRC Education Alliance, a private foundation under Internal Revenue Code section 501 (c)3 and 509 (a).
Contributions to the fund will be accepted immediately and on an ongoing basis. Checks should be made payable to the SRC Education Alliance and marked for the Simon Karecki Fellowship Fund. Please mail checks to:
SRC Education Alliance
ATTN: Simon Karecki Fellowship Fund
P.O. Box 12053
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2053
The Fellowship Funds will be invested by the Education Alliance with a periodical review of the investment to ensure responsible management of the principal and earnings.
An Advisory Board is established for the purposes of increasing and monitoring the Fellowship Fund investment.
Distribution of the fellowship funds will not exceed 25% of the whole except by direct approval of the Advisory Board; distribution of the earnings will be at the discretion of the Advisory Board and Education Alliance staff.
Distributions will be for the sole purpose of supporting the Simon Karecki Fellowship Fund and/or the Simon Karecki Awards. The level of annual funding of the Fellowship and Awards will be determined by the Education Alliance and the Advisory Board.