Recipient: 1998 Application to Practice Award

The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society's Application to Practice Award was established in 1985 to recognize outstanding achievement in the transfer of research results or findings in the metallurgical and materials science fields into commercial production and practical use as a representative of an industrial, academic, governmental, or technical organization.

Francois M. d'Heurle

Citation: "His invention of Al-Cu thin film conductors is widely used in modern computers without which their life would be shortened significantly due to electromigration failures. He has also done seminal work on metal silicide solid state reactions for applications in computers."

Biography: Francois M. d'Heurle is an emeritus research staff member for IBM Research and holds an adjunct professorship at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. He earned his B.S. in mechanical engineering at Arts et Metiers in 1946, his M.S. in metallurgical engineering at Michigan Technological University in 1948, and his Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering at the Illinois Institute for Technology in 1958. He served in a number of managerial and scientific positions at IBM during his 35 year career.

Dr. d'Heurle has authored or coauthored more than 200 technical papers on thin films, electromigration, diffusion, solid-state reactions, nucleation, and oxidation. He is a member of the editorial board for Thin Solid Films and Defect and Diffusion Forum. He has received several awards.

Quote: "I remember fondly attending my first scientific meeting with my thesis professor, Paul Gordon, at the TMS winter meeting in New Orleans in February 1957. This seems like prehistory now: we traveled overnight from Chicago by train and did not dream of computers. Yet a year later, I joined the IBM Research Division and got involved in the problems of materials used in the first solid-state computers. My systematic training as a metallurgist was extremely helpful throughout my career. I thank TMS for recognizing my contributions, however humble they may be. I also want to thank publicly the many unacknowledged friends and colleagues who made all of this possible."

The information on this page is maintained by Nellie Luther (natale@tms.org).

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