Dr. Chenming Hu is a world-renowned electrical engineer and pioneering semiconductor physicist whose transformative work has fundamentally shaped modern computing technology. He currently holds the distinguished title of TSMC Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California Berkeley where he has been a faculty member since 1976 after serving as Assistant Professor at MIT from 1973 to 1976. Born in Beijing in 1947 Dr. Hu earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from National Taiwan University in 1968 before completing his M.S. and Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in 1970 and 1973 respectively. His distinguished career includes serving as Chief Technology Officer of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company from 2001 to 2004 where he played a pivotal role in advancing the company's technological roadmap during a critical period of semiconductor industry growth.
Dr. Hu is best known for his groundbreaking contributions to transistor technology particularly his invention of the FinFET architecture in 1999 which resolved critical challenges of chip overheating and miniaturization that had threatened to halt Moore's Law. His visionary development of the FinFET enabled the continued scaling of semiconductor devices into the third dimension allowing the electronics industry to extend Moore's Law for several additional decades with profound economic implications. Additionally Dr. Hu led the creation of the BSIM the industry-standard transistor modeling tool that has been provided royalty-free for integrated circuit design underpinning the development of trillions of dollars worth of semiconductor products worldwide. These innovations have been universally adopted with all major semiconductor manufacturers implementing FinFET technology in their advanced processors by 2015 powering virtually every high-performance computing device from servers to smartphones.
His exceptional contributions have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards including the US National Medal of Technology and Innovation presented by President Obama the IEEE Andrew Grove Award and the IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal in 2009 for achievements critical to producing smaller yet more reliable and higher-performance integrated circuits. Beyond his technical achievements Dr. Hu has nurtured generations of semiconductor engineers through his teaching and mentorship at UC Berkeley receiving the university's highest honor for teaching. He has served on the boards of technology companies including SanDisk Inphi Ambarella and ACM Research extending his influence across the semiconductor ecosystem. Today his enduring legacy continues through institutions bearing his name including the Chenming Hu Innovation Lab at UC Berkeley and the Chenming and Margaret Hu Medical Center reflecting both his technological impact and his commitment to community service.
