Craford To Present 2001 Nelson Taylor Lectures

March 20, 2001

University Park, Pa. -- M. George Craford, chief technology officer for LumiLeds Lighting, will deliver the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences' 2001 Nelson W. Taylor Lectures on April 4 and 5 at Penn State's University Park Campus.

A reception for Craford will be held at 3:30 p.m on April 4, followed at 4 p.m. by his lecture, "The Visible Light Emitting Diode Revolution: Trends, Emerging Applications, and the Potential for Solid State Illumination." He will present a second lecture on, "Visible LED Technology Issues, Recent Developments, and Areas for Future Research" on April 5 at 4 p.m.

The reception and both lectures will be held in 189 Materials Research Lab, and all events are free to the public.

Penn State's Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences sponsors the Nelson Taylor Lecture Series. The series was established in 1969 to honor the memory of Professor Nelson W. Taylor (1899-1965) who was head of Penn State's Department of Ceramics from 1933 to 1943.

Craford received his B.A. from the University of Iowa in 1961 and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1967, both in physics, and began his professional career as a research physicist at Monsanto Chemical Company. Initially, his research dealt with the development of optoelectronic materials and devices using a variety of compound semiconductor materials. In 1974, he became the technical director of the Monsanto Electronics Division with management responsibility for silicon wafer development as well as compound semiconductor materials and device development.

In 1979, Craford joined Hewlett-Packard Company as a manager in the Optoelectronics Division, responsible for the development of technology and processes for manufacturing visible light emitting diodes (LEDs). In 1999, Craford assumed his current position as chief technical officer of LumiLeds Lighting, a joint venture of Agilent Technologies and Philips Lighting.

Craford was first recognized for the development of nitrogen doped gallium arsenic phosphorous technology for yellow and red-orange LEDs at Monsanto in the early 1970's. This became one of the dominant commercial LED technologies. At Hewlett-Packard, Craford's group maintained a leadership position in LED performance and production technology with the introduction of red and yellow aluminum indium gallium phosphorus devices,

which have better luminous efficiencies than incandescent lamps. These devices are widely used in outdoor applications such as traffic signals, highway signs, and automotive lighting. He was also responsible for programs developing indium gallium nitrogen technology for blue and green emitters.

He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. Craford has received the Materials Research Society Medal, the IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Award, the Holonyak Award of the Optical Society of America, the Welker Award of International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors, the Electronics Division Award of the Electrochemical Society and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Illinois, College of Engineering. He has published over 50 papers and book chapters, and holds several commercially important patents.

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Contacts:

A'ndrea Elyse Messer (814) 865-9481 (o)/ (814) 867-1774 (h) aem1@psu.edu