2000 Electronic Materials Conference: In Memory of Professor Gregory Eugene Stillman

Professor Gregory Eugene Stillman, a prominent faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign for many years, died on July 30, 1999. Greg, as we all called him, was an internationally renowned educator and researcher. He was a leading and recognized expert in III-V compound semiconductor materials and devices.

He was born in Scotia, Nebraska in 1936 and graduated from the University of Nebraska with a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1958. From 1958 to 1963, he served in the U.S. Air Force as an officer and a pilot. He entered the graduate program in Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois in 1963, and subsequently earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in 1965 and 1967, respectively under the guidance of Professor N. Holonyak, Jr. He joined MIT Lincoln Laboratory in 1967 and stayed there until 1975 when he was invited to join the University of Illinois electrical engineering faculty. His numerous accomplishments over the years contributed immensely to building the reputation of the University as a leader in compound semiconductor research. His technical contributions covered various aspects of the growth and characterization of compound semiconductor materials and devices. Seminal contributions include the first study and identification of DX centers in compound semiconductors and the synthesis of ultra-high purity GaAs. He contributed to the development of advanced characterization techniques for carrier mobility, photoconductivity, far infrared emission, and photothermal method of studying impurities. Many of these evaluation techniques are now widely used for compound semiconductors. He also contributed to the physics of avalanche photodiodes through fundamental measurements. He was the first to identify and exploit carbon as a dopant in GaAs and AlGaAs. These and other contributions have had significant impact on the development of compound semiconductor microelectronic and photonic devices that are now very crucial to wireless and broadband communications. He published over 300 papers, including a book, Physical Properties of Semiconductors (Prentice Hall, 1989), which he co-wrote with C. Wolfe and N. Holonyak, Jr. He supervised and guided the doctoral work of forty students.

Greg was elected a Fellow of the IEEE in 1977 and received the IEEE Morton Award in 1990 (with C. Wolfe). He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1985 and was awarded the GaAs Symposium Heinrich Welker Medal in 1990. At the University of Illinois, he was, at various times, the recipient of the College of Engineering D.C. Drucker Eminent Faculty Award, and the ECE Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award. He was a permanent member of the U of I Center for Advanced Study which is the highest honor for faculty. He was the Founding Director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Compound Semiconductor Microelectronics from 1985 to 1987.

Greg contributed to many professional societies including TMS, IEEE, and APS through his selfless service. He was an elected IEEE Electron Device Society (EDS) AdCom member from 1980 to 1985, its Vice President from 1982 to 1983, and the President from 1984 to 1985. He was the Chairman of IEEE Device Research Conference in 1988. In addition, he was a long serving member of TMS Electronic Materials Committee from 1979 to 1999. He served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Electronic Materials ( JEM) from 1988 to 1999 and contributed to making this journal a joint publication of both TMS and IEEE.

Professor Gregory Stillman will be remembered as a gentleman, a scholar, an unassuming researcher, and a very caring mentor.

Ilesanmi Adesida
University of Illinois at Urbana