history

Professor Gibbons received a BS degree at Northwestern University in 1953 and a PhD from Stanford in 1956. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1957, was appointed professor of electrical engineering in 1964, and dean of the School of Engineering in 1984. In 1983 he was named Reid Weaver Dennis Professor of Electrical Engineering, and in 1984 the Frederick Emmons Terman Dean of the School of Engineering. He served as Dean from September 1984 to June 1996.

His principal research interests are in the fields of semiconductor device analysis, process physics and technology and solar energy. He is the author of four textbooks in semiconductor electronics, four research monographs in the fields of ion implantation and beam processing of semiconductors and over 250 papers. He received the IEEE Jack A. Morton Award (1980), the Texas Instruments Founder's Prize (1982), the Semiconductor Industry Associationís University Research Award (1996), and the American Electronics Association Medal of Achievement (1996) for his pioneering research in the use of ion implantation and rapid thermal processing techniques for solid-state physics and technology.

In 1972, he invented the Tutored Video Instruction process, which he and his colleagues at Stanford and Hewlett-Packard developed into a highly regarded model for video-based distance learning, first used for the in-plant education of engineers in industry. He was awarded the IEEE Medal of Education (1981) for this work and for his semiconductor texts. Upon leaving the dean's office in 1996, Gibbons founded SERA Learning Technologies, a company devoted to using tutored video instruction for the education of at risk and underserved youth.

As dean, he created several important interschool programs with the School of Humanities and Sciences, the Graduate School of Business and the School of Medicine. In 1986, he brought the computer science department into the School of Engineering and initiated the thorough integration of that discipline into the departments and research centers of the School, an activity that has been continued and amplified by his successors. He also engaged venture capitalists in helping to build the school's endowment, through the Engineering Venture Fund, and to create new educational opportunities for students through the Technology Ventures Program.

Starting in 1985, he worked with the President and a group of senior colleagues in the university administration to create a plan for the Science and Engineering Quad, and he contributed to its implementation by raising naming gifts and supporting funds for several buildings in the SEQ. Within the school, he worked with the department chairs to put in place new standards for tenure that included high quality in both teaching and research, leading to a new plateau in the national ranking of the school. Upon his retirement from the office of dean, the University named a grove of trees outside the Thornton Center for him. A marker in that grove carries the inscription: "His enormous contributions as teacher, scholar, entrepreneur and dean have changed forever the physical and intellectual landscape of Stanford and the School of Engineering. His visionary leadership has set us on a course of unparalleled excellence and ensured the preeminence of our endeavors for generations to come".

Professor Gibbons is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Lifetime Fellow of the IEEE. He was named an Outstanding Alumnus of Northwestern University in 1987 and was awarded the IEEE Millennium Medal in 2001.