Rao Tummala has received the IZM Special Award in honor of outstanding achievements by international specialists in the field of electronic packaging for his pioneering role in advanced packaging research and education.

Academic Background
Rao has completed one of the most astonishing academic careers I have ever come across. He finished school in India at 14, having skipped two grades, and received his first degree in physics, mathematics and chemistry at the age of 17, a second and third in Metallurgical Engineering at age 19 and 20, and, finally, his Ph.D. in Material Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois at the age of 25.

Professional Career
Having covered four universities and two continents in the course of his studies, Rao then decided to settle down and went to work for IBM in East Fishkill, New York. During his years at IBM Rao received 16 company awards for developing and advancing IBM technologies relating to product display, magnetic storage and printing, as well as the first industry multi-chip module.

In 1993 Rao left IBM after 25 years, accepting a Pettit Chair Professorship at Georgia Institute of Technology. There he set out to establish the Microsystems Packaging Research Center (PRC), destined to become the largest university-based research and education center focusing on next generation system-level packaging of electronics.

He was named by Industry Week as one of the “50 Stars in the U.S.” for industry culture and U.S. competitiveness, he has received many prestigious awards including the IEEE David Sarnoff Award, the IMAPS John Wagon’s Award, the Materials Engineering Achievement Award, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Illinois and the Indian Institute of Science, the American Ceramic Society Arthur Friedberg Memorial Award and the John Jeppson Award, and the SME Total Electronic Excellence Manufacturing Award. In 1998, Dr. Tummala received Georgia Tech’s Distinguished Professor Award.

Dr. Tummala is a prominent leader in all major packaging related professional associations. He is a fellow of both the IEEE and the American Ceramic Society. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, past General Chair of the IEEE-ECTC, and past president of IMAPS and IEEE/CPMT. Dr. Tummala has published over 200 technical papers and holds 67 patents and inventions. He is co-editor of four widely used Microelectronics Handbooks and is editor of the “Fundamentals of Microelectronic Systems Packaging” undergraduate textbook.

Cooperation between Fraunhofer IZM and Georgia Tech
In 1998 it was the late Andreas Schubert who coordinated a project on the dimensional limits of flip chips named Die 2012, the beginning of a long-standing close relationship between the Fraunhofer IZM and Rao Tummala at Georgia Tech.