2004 Simon Karecki Award Presented

April Ross

Hyoungsub Kim

The 2004 Simon Karecki Award was presented to April Ross from MIT and to Hyoungsub Kim from Stanford, at the SRC/NSF Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing Research Review. The award presentation recognized April's and Hyoungsub's leadership and strong academic achievement.

The award is funded by the Simon Karecki Endowment and was presented by Dr. Farhang Shadman, director of the CEBSM, and Simon’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Karecki.

The following is the text from presentation made by Dr. Shadman.

This is the third presentation of the Simon Karecki Award. This Award is given in memory of Dr. Simon Karecki who was a student in this Center and an SRC Fellow. Friends and colleagues of Simon have come together to create the Simon Karecki Endowment in memory of an outstanding young man and researcher and as a way to encourage other talented young researchers in the pursuit of environmental research.

Before I present this year's Simon Karecki Award, I would like to recognize those members of the Governing Board who are present today: Reed Content, AMD, Ken Aitcheson, Novellus, Rafael Reif, MIT, and Coleen Regan, International SEMATECH, and from the SRC, Tim Wooldridge and Ginny Wiggins. I would also like to take this opportunity to urge you as individuals to participate in the building of the endowment. And we especially need the help of those of you representing companies to strongly encourage corporate donations. Any member of the Governing Board will be glad to discuss possibilities with you and tell you how to direct your funds. A brochure is available at the registration desk for you to take back to your company.

On behalf of the ERC, SRC, and the Karecki Endowment Governing Board, it is a great pleasure to present two 2004 Simon Karecki Awards to April Ross from MIT and to Hyoungsub Kim from Stanford.

April is pursuing her PhD in Chemical Engineering as a Texas Instruments/SRC Fellow at MIT, Simon's alma mater. Her research uses chemical vapor deposition as an environmentally benign process for interlayer dielectric films. The CVD aspect of the project is essential because it is a solvent-free method and is an environmentally friendly alternative to the spin cast process for other low dielectric constant materials. April is outstanding academically, and she has a number of publications and presentations to her credit as well as a patent application. What sets April apart is that she is motivated by fundamental science, technology issues and a concern for the environment. She has assumed a leadership position among her peer group at MIT and within the ERC. One reviewer noted a presentation style that "encourages questions and engages the audience," and another noted her ability to work with younger students as a teaching assistant. April is already making significant contributions to research that make our industry more environmentally friendly, and we expect to see even greater contributions in the future.

Hyoungsub Kim is outstanding for his academic record - a perfect 4.0 - and a list of publications that many junior faculty would be proud of. Hyoungsub is pursuing a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. His research on ALD of metal oxide gate dielectrics has resulted in major new projects at Stanford including research on area-selective atomic layer deposition, which is partially supported by the Center. If successful, this approach will avoid the need to etch high-k dielectric layers, providing a potentially significant reduction in the number of wafer processing steps required for future gate stack fabrication and their associated ESH impacts. Hyoungsub also possesses the ability to work and thrive in a cross-disciplinary environment. He is a leader in his research group and a mentor for younger students in the group. Hyoungsub has ably demonstrated his ability as a researcher and his interest in environmental issues, abilities and interests that we expect to continue well into the future.

It is the decision of the Governing Board that both April and Hyoungsub are eminently well qualified to receive 2004 Awards. We are very fortunate to once again have Mr. and Mrs. Karecki with us today; it is a distinct honor for us to have them here, and we would like to ask them to present the 2004 Simon Karecki Awards.