| 1 | Name: | Dr. Alfred Y. Cho | |
| Institution: | Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies | ||
| Year Elected: | 1996 | ||
| Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 103. Engineering | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1937 | ||
Alfred Y. Cho was born July 10, 1937 in Beijing, China. He retired as the Semiconductor Research Vice President, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies in 2001. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois in 1960, 1961, and 1968, respectively. In 1961, prior to obtaining his Ph.D. degree, he worked at Ion Physics Corporation, Burlington, Massachusetts, a subsidiary of High Voltage Engineering Corporation, where he studied charged micron-sized solid particles in high electric fields. In 1962, he joined TRW-Space Technology Laboratories, Redondo Beach, California, and engaged in research in high current density ion beams. He returned to the University of Illinois in 1965 and received a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in 1968. Upon his graduation in 1968, he joined Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey as a Member of Technical Staff and was promoted to Department Head in 1984. He was named Director of the Materials Processing Research Laboratory in 1987 and Semiconductor Research Vice President in 1990. He is now an Adjunct Semiconductor Research Vice President, Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois. He has made seminal contributions to materials science and physical electronics through his pioneering development of the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) crystal growth process. He demonstrated that MBE could be used to prepare epitaxial films one atomic layer at a time, with exceptional control at atomic dimensions and further showed that these films could be the basis of devices with never before realized electrical and optical properties. His work has bridged many disciplines ranging from fundamental quantum physics, through epitaxial crystal growth, to device fabrication and testing. The capabilities of MBE have allowed new fields of materials research to develop. The ability to precisely make quantum wells has had a far-reaching impact, ranging from classroom physics to revolutions in electronic and optical devices for the consumer electronics, computer and communications industries MBE is broadly used today for advanced multilayer crystal growth and has led to radically new devices including high-speed transistors, microwave devices, laser diodes and detectors. Most of the semiconductor lasers used in today's compact disc players and CD-ROM'S are manufactured using MBE-grown material. Presently, MBE is used to produce the Hall sensors used as disk drive speed controllers for computers and VCRs. High electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) which are utilized as high speed circuit components and in high frequency, low noise, direct broadcast satellite and wireless communications are manufactured by MBE. This impact of MBE on fundamental science has been as dramatic as its impact on semiconductor technology. A significant ongoing contribution of MBE is the experimental generation of low dimensional systems. The discovery of an entirely new state of electrons, the fractional quantized Hall effect, was made possible as a result of MBE crystal quality. More recently (1994) he and coworkers demonstrated a fundamentally new type of laser which is a unipolar intersubband semiconductor laser called the quantum cascade (QC) laser. Dr. Cho has authored over 590 papers in surface physics, crystal growth, and device physics and performance. He holds 75 patents on crystal growth and semiconductor devices related to MBE. He is a recipient of the Electronics Division Award of the Electrochemical Society (1977), the American Physical Society International Prize for New Materials (1982), the IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Award (1982), the GaAs Symposium Award - Ford (1986), the Heinrich Welker Medal - Siemens (1986), the Solid State Science and Technology Medal of the Electrochemical Society (1987), the World Materials Congress Award of ASM International (1988), the Gaede-Langmuir Award of the American Vacuum Society (1988), the Industrial Research Institute Achievement Award of the Industrial Research Institute, Inc. (1988), the New Jersey Governor's Thomas Alva Edison Science Award (1990), the International Crystal Growth Award of the American Association for Crystal Growth (1990), the Asian American Corporate Achievement Award (1992), the AT&T Bell Labs Fellow Award (1992), the National Medal of Science, presented by President Clinton (1993), the Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1993-94), the IEEE Medal of Honor (1994), the Materials Research Society Von Hippel Award (1994), The Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute (1995), the Computer and Communications Prize of the C & C Foundation, Japan (1995), the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame (1997), Honorary Doctor of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1999), the Willis E. Lamb Medal for Laser Physics (2000), the University of Illinois Alumni Achievement Award (2000), the IEEE Third Millennium Medal (2000), the NASA Group Achievement Award (2000), Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, City University of Hong Kong (2000) and the Honorary Doctor of Science, Hong Kong Baptist University (2001), and the 2005 National Medal of Technology, announced and presented by President Bush in 2007. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, the American Physical Society, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He is a member of the U. S. National Academy of Engineering (1985), the National Academy of Sciences (1985), the Third World Academia of Sciences (1987), the Academia Sinica (1990), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (1996), and the American Philosophical Society (1996). He is married to Mona Willoughby; they have four children, Derek, Deidre, Brynna, and Wendy. His outside interests include painting, calligraphy, photography, table tennis, and most recently, learning how to play golf. | |||