Sorin Cristoloveanu - Biography#

Sorin Cristoloveanu is a globally recognized pioneer in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. Born in 1949, he earned his PhD in Electronics (1976) and Doctorat d’État ès-Sciences (1981) from the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble (INPG). Over a career spanning more than 50 years, he has made groundbreaking contributions to advanced semiconductor technologies and device engineering. He has held prestigious academic and industrial positions, including at CNRS, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Motorola, and several leading universities in the US, Australia, Spain, China and South Korea. He is still an active scientist and professor.

He has authored more than 1,200 scientific articles and conference contributions, along with 39 books and 18 patents. He is renowned for his work on SOI structures, including the invention of novel electrical characterization techniques such as the Pseudo-MOSFET, now an industrial standard, and the development of innovative devices like the Z2-FET, G4-MOSFET, and single-transistor memory cell. He gave more than 200 invited lectures across the planet.

Among his many accolades, he received the prestigious IEEE Andrew Grove Award in 2017, the highest honor in micro-nanoelectronics. He has been elected Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Granada and Fellow of the IEEE and the Electrochemical Society. He has supervised more than 110 PhD students, several of whom have received thesis awards. Sorin is a long-standing editor for Solid-State Electronics and has chaired or co-organized 35 major international conferences.

His impact extends beyond academia. Sorin has collaborated with industry leaders such as Soitec, STMicroelectronics, and Freescale, facilitating technology transfer from his laboratories to industry with significant economic and societal impacts. He is also the founder of two international summer schools, MIGAS (France) and nano-KISS (Korea), which have been instrumental in training several generations of researchers.

Sorin Cristoloveanu’s visionary contributions to semiconductor physics, electrical characterization, and device engineering have revolutionized the field, while fostering strong connections between science and industry.