Rajinder Paul Khosla
Distinguished Alumnus 1990
- 1966 Ph.D.
Dr. Khosla, a recipient of a Purdue Ph.D. in 1966, occupies a key position - Director, Microeledronics Technology Division - at Kodak, one of the most visible U.S. Industrial Corporations.
Rajinder showed evidence of his special qualities as a dynamic, cornmitted, and innovative scientific investigator very early in his research under one of us (RJS). The excellence of hs Ph.D. thesis research on the thermoelectricity in Indium Antimonide at low temperatures was attested to by its publication in the very selective Physical Review Letters. During his Ph.D. research he also made valuable contributions to the understanding of the magnetoresistance of InSb which were reported at the 1966 International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors and published in the proceedings of that meeting.
On the basis of his accomplishments, Rajinder was selected by Kodak Research Laboratories where he established a very productive research program on the electrical and photoconductive properties of II-VI compound semiconductors. His fine accomplishments led to a number of scientific publications and increasingly responsible positions at Kodak and by 1976 he was designated the Head of the Solid State Laboratory.
The "Kodak Academic Award" in 1974 is a measure of the importance attached to his unique contributions by Kodak. it also proved to be a turning point in Rajinder's career. He spent the 1974-75 academic year at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California, Santa Barbara (USCB). He recognized the future of charge coupled devices (CDD), taught himself the physics and engineering of these devices and initiated a program on them at USCB.
On return to Kodak, Rajinder focussed all his energies on initiating a program on modeling design, fabrication and testing of CCD's. He organized facilities for the Research & Development of CCD's and ASIC's. In 1985 he was the obvious choice for the Directorship of the Microelectronic Technology Division. Rajinder has played an important role in Kodak's commitment to electronic image processing. He directs a multi-million dollar facility for integrated circuits fabrication involving over 200 professionals.
Rajinder is a frequent invited speaker on "solid state photo-imaging" - a field where his contributions are regarded very highly - at professional societies such as the American Physical Society. His chairmanship of the organizing program committees on solid state integrated circuits conferences between 1978 and 1984 is another evidence of the high regard in which he is held by his colleagues. He is the co-founder of the Custom Integrated Circuits Conference. In 1985 he was elected Fdlow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, his contributions to solid state imaging and leadership in microelectronics being cited for it as the reason for his election.
Excerpted from the nomination letter by Professors R. J. Sladek and Anant K. Ramdas, October 13, 1989