Robert M. Wallace

was born in Pittsburgh, PA. He received the B.S. in Physics and Applied Mathematics (1982), the M.S. (1984) and the Ph.D. (1988) in Physics all at the University of Pittsburgh. He then was a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Chemistry at the Pittsburgh Surface Science Center.

In 1990, he joined Texas Instruments Central Research Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff (MTS) in the Materials Science Laboratory, and was elected as a Senior MTS in 1996. Dr. Wallace was then appointed in 1997 to manage the Advanced Technology branch that focused on advanced device concepts and the associated material integration issues. He is a co-inventor of the Hf-based high-k gate dielectric materials envisioned for introduction in the semiconductor industry in the next decade.

In 2003, he joined the faculty in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas as a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Physics, and is the director of the Cleanroom Research Laboratory. He has over 100 publications in peer reviewed journals and proceedings, as well as 69 US and international patents. A review on high-k gate dielectrics which he coauthored was recently recognized by the Semiconductor Research Corporation as one of the most influential research publications in the field with more than 1800 citations to date, and has been recently selected among the 45 top cited publications by the American Institute of Physics over the last 75 years. He is a member of the Applied Surface Science and the Electronic Materials and Processing divisions in the AVS, and a member of the Materials Research Society and the Electrochemical Society.

He is also a senior member of the IEEE. His interests include materials and integration issues for advanced devices including gate dielectrics and electrodes as well as materials for nanoelectronics.