The EDA Consortium has chosen electronic industry pioneer, entrepreneur, researcher and educator Ron Rohrer as the 2002 recipient of its prestigious Phil Kaufman Award. Dr. Rohrer was selected for his distinguished contributions to the EDA industry.

“Ron Rohrer’s contributions are representative of the spirit behind the Kaufman Award, said Walden C. Rhines, EDA Consortium Chair and Chair and CEO of Mentor Graphics Corporation. “His body of work, entrepreneurial endeavors, technology contributions, and role in many collaborative efforts have led to better design tools and are evidence of how he has helped advance our industry.”

"As an educator, as a researcher, an entrepreneur and a mentor to many accomplished leaders in our field, Ron has demonstrated his ability to cause truly transformative changes in our industry time and time again," added Richard Newton, Dean of the College of Engineering at University of California, Berkeley. "His ability to understand and apply basic engineering and mathematical principles in design technology, with an unparalleled appreciation for the tradeoffs needed to maximize the practical impact of a new idea or insight, make Ron's contributions to our field truly unique."

Aart de Geus, chairman and CEO of Synopsys, Inc., and one of the people who nominated Ron Rohrer, noted, “Throughout his career, Ron has always been at the leading edge of circuit simulation R&D. In fact, many concepts that stem from his earliest days have had tremendous impact. For example, the SPICE program, which resulted from a class project that he led, has had widespread, substantial impact on our industry for the past 25 years. For this reason and others like them, Ron is one of the most deserving recipients of the Kaufman award.”

Ron Rohrer is an Executive Advisor of Magma Design Automation in Cupertino, Calif., and is Chair of Neolinear in Pittsburgh, PA. He is an entrepreneur, who has been involved with a dozen successful start-up companies and an educator who has taught at leading universities. His career includes research, marketing and management positions in both large and small semiconductor and EDA companies. He has also authored five textbooks and more than one hundred papers, and is a Fellow of the IEEE and a member of the US National Academy of Engineering. He was awarded the IEEE Education Medal in 1993 and the C&C Prize in Japan in 1996.