Professional Society Involvement and Contributions
IEEE: Principal Activities, Dates, Descriptions
- General Chairman, IEEE CPMT ECTC Conference (1996)
- Member of Board of Governors (1995-current)
- General Chairman, International Conference on Advanced Packaging Materials, Atlanta, 1996-2002
- Chairman, IEEE Fellow Search Committee (1994-2000)
- Education Chair, IEEE CPMT and ECTC (1997)
- Technical Vice President of IEEE CPMT responsible for technical strategy of the Society and its 21 technical committees (1998)
- Member of IEEE David Sarnoff award selection committee (1998)
- President of IEEE CPMT Society 2000-2004 (two terms)
The most important contribution of Prof. Tummala as the President of IEEE PMT is with globalizing the CPMT Society during his Presidency. IEEE TAB reviewed his contributions in this area and stated in 2003: "Overall, CPMT is a very well managed and dynamic Society under Prof. Tummala’s leadership. The Society Review Committee thanks the Society and Prof. Rao Tummala for his excellent strategic plan and his presentation about the Society's past and future plans. We are impressed with the effort to develop strategic direction and with the appointment of Strategic Directors in Regions 8 and 10 to focus on specific activities. TAB likes the positive directions of CPMT Society such as membership, subscriptions, subscription rates, global conferences, recruitment, and educational programs." The TAB also indicated that they would like to see this as example of “Best Practices” to be implemented across all other IEEE Societies. As a result of his efforts, the IEEE CPMT Board is now made up of almost 50% of its Board from outside the U.S., including its President, VP of Technology and Conferences.
Rao created a number of IEEE workshops and conferences in emerging technologies and took on the roles as Session Chair, Technical Chair and General Chair. He created materials conference, flipchip, embedded passives, SOP, and 3S ( SOC-SIP-SOP) workshops. He served as VP of Technology for CPMT and created a number of new technical committees (TCs) that include, Electrical Design, Test, RF and Embedded passives. His most recent creation is the nano-packaging TC.
Rao also developed a partnership between IEEE CPMT and NSF, raising about $400K with which to fund and develop 9 educational course modules for use worldwide. These are now available for use on-line.
Other Principal Professional Activities; Dates, Descriptions
Professor Tummala is very active in several other professional societies involved in electronics, having been elected as the President of the two largest professional societies in packaging -- IEEE and IMAPS. He has also been active in materials societies (Ceramic Society, MRS ) and mechanical engineering societies (ASME). He was Technical VP, then President and International VP of IMAPS Society (International Microelectronics and Packaging Society) from 1993-2002. In these roles, he created 5 new technology workshops and 6 new Society chapters in China, India, Brazil, Slovenia, Israel, and Singapore. Prof. Tummala was the only person ever to hold the Presidency of the two largest societies in electronic packaging -- IEEE CPMT and IMAPS until recently. For his contributions to these and other societies, he has received numerous awards including the Technical Achievement Award and the Daniel Hughes Award (the highest award from IMAPS) for most service in engineering, the Engineering Materials Award from ASM for the most innovative engineered materials, the Total Quality Manufacturing Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineering (SME) for manufacturing excellence and the John Jeppson Award from the American Ceramic Society for most innovative contributions in electronics ceramics.
The educational activities with these societies include undergraduate fellowships for research at universities offering electronic packaging. To inspire and motivate students' careers in electronics, he gives a four-hour tutorial at the annual IMAPS Society meeting. This course, entitled "Technical Challenges, Markets and Careers in Electronic Packaging," is attended by all undergraduate and graduate students at the annual symposium.
Principal Honors (non-IEEE)
- Memberships
- Member, National Academy of Engineering, 1992
- Member, Indian National Academy of Engineering, 2002
- Fellows
- Fellow of IEEE 1993
- Fellow of American Ceramic Society, 1984
- IBM Fellow, 1984-1993
- IMAPS, Fellow, 2000
- Academic Awards
- Distinguished Faculty Award, Georgia Institute of Technology, May 1998
- Distinguished Alumni Award for meritorious service in Engineering, IISc, Bangalore, India, March 2000
- Distinguished Alumni Honor Award for service to Engineering, University of Illinois, 1991
- Endowed Pettit Chair Professor, School of Electrical & Computer Engineering Georgia Tech, 1993
- Honorary Visiting Professor by Chinese Academy of Sciences to Fudan University, 1997
- First Endowed Professor in Packaging at the University of Tokyo, February 1999
- Brahma Prakash Chair Visiting Professor, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 2000
- Visiting Professor, City University of Hong Kong, February 2001
- Industry Awards
- 16 Outstanding Technical Innovation Awards from IBM
- 9 Invention Awards from IBM
- Total Excellence in Electronics Manufacturing (TEEM) Award, Society of Manufacturing Engineering, 1997
- Named by Industry Week as one of the “50 Stars in the U.S.” for Improving U.S. Competitiveness, 1994
- Professional Society Awards
- Engineering Materials Achievement Award from ASM-International, 1992
- John Wagnon Technical Achievement Award form ISHM, 1992
- Friedberg Memorial Award from American Ceramic Society for contributions in electronic ceramics, 1993
- John Jeppson Award from the American Ceramic Society for industry’s first multichip, 1997
- European Materials Award of the Year from DVM Society, 1997
- Daniel Hughes Award from IMAPS
- Educator of the Year for Excellence in Teaching, Research, and Innovation in the Field of Microsystems Packaging by the India-American Cultural Association, Inc., 1999
IEEE Honors and Awards
- David Sarnoff Field Award (1993)
- IEEE Fellow (1993)
- CPMT Sustained Technical Achievement Award (1993)
- IEEE Millennium Medal of Honor Award (2000)
- IEEE Major Education Award (2004)
- IEEE Best Technical paper awards
- More than 15 best paper awards including Intel Fellowship paper, Motorola Fellowship paper, 11 Materials conference papers, 7 ECTC papers, EPTC Singapore papers
Contact Information
Phone: (404) 894-9097
Fax: (404) 894-3842
Email: rao.tummala@ece.gatech.edu
Georgia Institute of Technology
Packaging Research Center
Manufacturing Research Center (MaRC) Building
813 Ferst Drive, Room 351
Mail Code: 0250
Atlanta, GA 30332-0250