Thursday, August 1, 2024, 9:00 AM
Semiconductor Industry Association
Industry luminaries and pioneers in EDA technology to receive 2024 Robert N. Noyce Award at SIA Awards Dinner on Nov. 21
WASHINGTON—August 1, 2024—The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced that Dr. Art de Geus, chairman of the board and founder of Synopsys, has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the Robert N. Noyce Award, SIA’s highest honor.
SIA presents the Noyce Award annually to recognize leaders who have made outstanding contributions to the semiconductor industry in the areas of technology and public policy. Dr. de Geus will receive the award at the SIA Awards Ceremony in San Jose, California on November 21, 2024.
“A globally respected leader and visionary in the semiconductor industry, Art pioneered groundbreaking electronic design automation (EDA) technologies that provided software tools at the heart of chip design,” said SIA President and CEO John Neufer. “In a career spanning more than 40 years, Art has made immeasurable contributions to the industry and served as a strong and influential advocate for our priorities. We are thrilled to honor his groundbreaking achievements with the 2024 Robert N. Noyce Award.”
Dr. de Geus began his career in 1982 at General Electric where he developed foundational tools for semiconductor design and verification. Synopsys, which Art founded in 1986, was the first to develop and widely commercialize logic synthesis, the automation of the creation of digital designs from language descriptions. This capability enabled and automated the scaling of enormous digital complexity over decades, transitioning computer-aided design (CAD) into the EDA era, also known as Moore’s Law. Art served as the company’s CEO from 1994 to 2024.
Art has received numerous honors in recognition of his pioneering work, industry impact and community contributions, including “CEO of the Year” (2002) and “Top 10 Most Influential Executives” (2005) by Electronic Business Magazine, the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal (2007), the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG) “Spirit of the Valley” Lifetime Achievement Award (2007), the Electronic System Design Association (ESDA) Phil Kaufman Award (2008), the GSA “Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award” (2009), the Silicon Valley Engineering Council Hall of Fame Award (2013), and an honorary Doctorate from the University of Glasgow (2022).
Art currently serves as Executive Chairman of Synopsys’ board of directors and continues to oversee the management of Synopsys’ business operations.
Art serves on the board of directors of Applied Materials and is active in business and the community, serving on the boards of directors of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG), the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) and the Electronic Systems Design Alliance (ESDA). Art is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
In 1999, Art, having recognized early on the future engineering talent shortage in the high tech industry, founded the Synopsys Outreach Foundation to promote project-based science and math learning throughout Silicon Valley, and for over 35 years, Synopsys has actively fostered community engagement in major locations around the world.
Art earned his Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland, and his PhD from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
“I am honored to receive the 2024 Noyce Award and to be among the outstanding individuals recognized for their lasting contributions to our unique and rapidly growing industry,” said de Geus. “Looking back, the transition from CAD to EDA truly marked a technological inflection point, enabling us to increase digital design productivity by approximately 10 million times.”
Aart enthused: “The full embrace of 3D multi-die integration has evolved semiconductor technology from scale complexity to system complexity. Driven by the demand economics of AI and enabled by amazing AI-powered design flows, we have entered the next exponential era full circle. It’s exciting to see the decades of opportunity that surround us and to be part of the collective ingenuity of an industry that is making the impossible possible again and again.”
The Noyce Award is named in honor of Robert N. Noyce, co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel Corporation and a pioneer in the semiconductor industry.
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Media Contact
Dan Rosso
Semiconductor Industry Association
240-305-4738
drosso@semiconductors.org About SIA
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) is the voice of the semiconductor industry, one of America’s leading export industries and a key driver of America’s economic strength, national security, and global competitiveness. SIA represents 99% of the U.S. semiconductor industry by revenue and nearly two-thirds of non-U.S. semiconductor companies. Through this coalition, SIA seeks to advance leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research by working with Congress, the Administration, and key industry stakeholders around the world to advance policies that foster innovation, advance business, and promote global competition. For more information, visit www.semiconductors.org.
