Bakir Chosen for Dan Fielder Professorship

Muhannad Bakir has been appointed as the Dan Fielder Professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), effective September 1, 2019. 

After graduating from Georgia Tech with his Ph.D. in ECE in 2003, Bakir worked as a research engineer in the Microelectronics Research Center/Nanotechnology Research Center until 2010 and then joined ECE as an associate professor. In 2016, he was promoted to the rank of professor. 

Bakir leads the Integrated 3D Systems Group, consisting of nine Ph.D. students and one research engineer who explore the design, fabrication, and characterization of 3D electronic systems and advanced interconnect networks. To date, he has graduated 13 Ph.D. students and two M.S. students. Bakir and his research group have received 30 conference and student paper awards, and his group was also awarded the 2014 and 2017 Best Paper Awards for the IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology. 

Bakir's specific research and educational interests focus on 3D electronic system integration, advanced cooling and power delivery for 3D systems, biosensors and their integration with CMOS circuitry, and nanofabrication technology. He and his colleagues have raised approximately $18 million in research funding from DARPA, NIH, NSF, the Semiconductor Research Corporation, the McKnight Foundation, and industry. 

A dedicated classroom instructor, Bakir receives consistently high ratings from undergraduate and graduate students in the courses that he teaches: Integrated Circuit Fabrication, Microelectronic Circuits, and Introduction to Microelectronics Technology. The co-editor of the book, Integrated Interconnect Technologies for 3D Nanoelectronic Systems, he is the author or co-author of more than 200 refereed journal and conference publications, nine book chapters, 15 U.S. patents, and multiple invited presentations. 

Bakir currently serves on the editorial board of the IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology (TCPMT) and the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices (TED). He serves as a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society (EPS).   

Throughout his career, Bakir has received numerous awards and honors. He received the 2013 Intel Early Career Faculty Honor Award, 2012 DARPA Young Faculty Award, 2011 IEEE CPMT Society Outstanding Young Engineer Award, and was an Invited Participant in the 2012 National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. He was honored with the 2018 IEEE EPS Exceptional Technical Achievement Award “for contributions to 2.5D and 3D IC heterogeneous integration, with a focus on interconnect technologies.” 

Bakir is also the co-recipient of the 2018 McKnight Foundation Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Award, the first time that Georgia Tech received this particular award. On campus, he was recognized with the ECE Outstanding Junior Faculty Member Award in 2016 and the Georgia Tech Outstanding Achievement in Research Program Development Award in 2017.  

This professorship is named after the late Daniel C. Fielder, who served on the ECE faculty from 1948 until his death in 2002. Prior to Bakir’s appointment, ECE Professor Sung Kyu Lim had held this professorship for the last five years.