Prof. Tomás Palacios named MTL Director

Prof. Maria Zuber, Vice-President of Research at MIT, and Prof. Anantha Chandrakasan, Dean of the School of Engineering at MIT, have announced the new Director for Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) to be Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Professor Tomás Palacios.

"I am looking forward to working with all of you to ensure that MTL continues to play a key role in the future of microsystems and semiconductors," said Prof. Palacios in a letter to the MTL community. "The work ahead will require new ways to innovate, new ways to work together, and new ways to translate what we do in the lab into technologies that impact the world. All of us will need to get involved, and I am looking forward to working with every single one of you."

Prof. Palacios joined MIT (and MTL) back in 2006, after receiving his PhD from the University of California – Santa Barbara, and his undergraduate degree in Telecommunication Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain). Prof. Palacios is a world expert in Gallium Nitride electronics for both RF and power applications, and his group has also made seminal contributions to two-dimensional materials and devices, and their heterogeneous integration with Si CMOS electronics. His work has been recognized with multiple awards including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the 2012 and 2019 IEEE George Smith Award, and the NSF, ONR, and DARPA Young Faculty Awards, among many others.

Prof. Palacios is the founding director of the MTL Center for Graphene Devices and 2D Systems, as well as the co-founder of Finwave Semiconductor, Inc., an MTL spin-off company commercializing GaN FinFET-based power amplifiers for 5G communications. He is also a Fellow of IEEE, and has served the microelectronics community in many roles, more recently as the General Chair for the IEEE Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits.

"Under the new leadership of Prof. Palacios, I am convinced MTL will flourish as the premier research laboratory in microelectronics, and I wish him the best of luck," said current MTL Director Harry Lee. "I will assist him in any way I can to make the transition as seamless as possible. Please welcome him as the new leader of MTL."

Congratulations Prof. Palacios!