Professor Tsu-Jae King Liu, a co-founder of the Women in Tech Initiative at UC, was named among the 155 renowned academic inventors to NAI Fellow status by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) on December 12, 2017. As stated in Berkeley News, Professor King Liu has contributed over her career to many developments in semiconductor devices and technology and co-invented, with UC Berkeley’s Chenming Hu, the FinFET transistor (fin field-effect transistor), which is used today in leading-edge integrated circuits. She was instrumental in demonstrating the reliability and scalability of FinFETs, and presently holds 94 patents and an additional 80 patents pending in the field of semiconductor devices and fabrication methods. Thirty-seven of her issued patents were assigned to a company she cofounded, Progressant Technologies, Inc., which was acquired by Synopsys, Inc.
According to NAI, election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional accolade bestowed to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society. On 5 Apr. 2018, the 2017 NAI Fellows will be inducted as part of the Seventh Annual NAI Conference in Washington, DC. Andrew H. Hirshfeld, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Commissioner for Patents, will provide the keynote address for the induction ceremony. In honor of their outstanding accomplishments, Fellows will be presented with a special trophy, medal, and rosette pin.