Professor Jeffrey H. Shapiro, Director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Julius A. Stratton Professor of Electrical Engineering, announced today that he has appointed Professor Jacob K. White of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) to the position of Associate Director. Professor White joins RLE’s current Associate Director, Professor Daniel Kleppner, Lester Wolfe Professor of Physics and Director of the National Science Foundation MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms. Professors Shapiro, Kleppner, and White form a new three-person team providing intellectual leadership for the Laboratory as it pursues a diversity of exciting opportunities across RLE’s extensive scientific and educational interests.
Professor White is a principal investigator in RLE’s Circuits and Systems Group and directs RLE’s VLSI-CAD Group. Professor White is a pioneer in numerical methods, particularly in computational prototyping tools and techniques for integrated circuit interconnect, circuit packaging, and micromachined devices. Major contributions by Professor White’s research at RLE include computationally efficient numerical techniques used to simulate complicated three-dimensional structures. Applications of these techniques include the electrostatic and fluidic analysis of sensors and actuators, electromagnetic analysis of integrated-circuit interconnects and packaging, and potential flow-based analysis of wave-ocean structure interaction. Professor White’s current research interests include serial and parallel numerical algorithms for problems in circuit, interconnect, and microelectromechanical system design.
In making this appointment, Professor Shapiro noted, “I have tremendous respect for Jacob’s research achievements and for his commitment to classroom teaching and graduate student mentoring,” adding that “we have worked together in several administrative settings in which Jacob has demonstrated the kind of insight and dedication that are needed from an Associate Director.” Finally, Professor Shapiro observed that, “Jacob, Dan Kleppner and I collectively represent many of the research threads running through the RLE. Together, I believe we will comprise a strong administrative team for carrying RLE forward from an outstanding past into an even greater future.”
Professor White received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT in 1980, and his masters degree in 1983 and his doctorate in 1985 from the University of California, Berkeley, in the same discipline. He worked at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center from 1985 to 1987. He joined the MIT faculty in 1987 as assistant professor in EECS, becoming associate professor in 1991 and full professor in 1996.
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