2015 Simon Karecki Award Presented to Jack Kun-Chieh Chen, UCLA

The following is an excerpt of the 2014 Simon Karecki award presentation:

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 Fellowship Fund in memory of an outstanding individual and researcher to encourage other talented young researchers in the pursuit of environmental research.   

We are very fortunate to once again have Simon’s parents, Richard and Anna Karecki, with us today.  Anna and Richard will you please make your way to the front? Anna and Richard have long been dedicated to this program, the research and the talent in which it supports. They consider all the recipients of this award part of their family and always welcome opportunities to engage with those that are as passionate about what they do as their Simon.

Anna and Richard, we always enjoy having you here, your presence and enthusiasm for the research speaks volumes and it means so much to all of us here. Because of your dedication and our wanting you to know just how special you are to this program, the SRC would like to present you with a small “memento.”  This is a small token of our appreciation, please know we are grateful for you, for your involvement and your willingness to share so much of your Simon with all of us. Thank you Anna and Richard.

Before I present the 2015 Simon Karecki Award, I would like to recognize my fellow Simon Karecki Advisory Board members:

• Duane Boning, MIT
• Tim Dalton, IBM
• Bob Havemann, SRC
• Chris Lee, Texas Instruments
• Kwok Ng, SRC
• MaryLisabeth Rich, SRC Education Alliance (absent)
• Mike Ryan, Intel
• Farhang Shadman, University of Arizona, ERC

Our 2015 Karecki Recipient is Jack Kun-Chieh Chen. Jack, please come forward.

Jack is pursuing a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA, working under the faculty direction of Dr. Jane Chang. Jack began his college career with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering before coming to UCLA. When Jack arrived at UCLA he passed his preliminary oral exam with flying colors and continued to perform at the highest academic level. Jack’s performance and motivation caught the attention of Dr. Jane Chang and she recruited him to join her research group under the support of the Center for Environmentally Begin Semiconductor Manufacturing.

Jack’s work has primarily been focused on the area of “Plasma patterning of hard-to-etch metal.” Jack has published his work and presented at numerous symposiums and conferences.  Jack’s academic excellence, concern for the earth and his ability to foster communication with others has also been recognized by being a 4 time recipient of the Presidential Award for the top 5% of students at NTU. Jack also received the Research Creativity Award from the National Science Council in 2010 as well as receiving Research Assistant Scholarships at UCLA.

Jack is scheduled to complete his PhD work at UCLA in the summer of 2016. We anticipate he will finish much the way he started by demonstrating academic excellence and showing his dedication and concern for the earth’s environment.

Congratulations Jack, we appreciate you, we support you and we applaud you.

Please join me in applauding the dedication and work of Jack Kun-Chieh Chen.  

Jack, we look forward to your inspiring future.