Jan M. Rabaey
Biography
Jan M. Rabaey is a pioneer and worldwide leader in education on integrated circuit (IC) technology and design. He helped foster a global workforce in these domains through the publication of seminal textbooks and supporting material for students and instructors. In his leadership roles at Berkeley and IMEC, he has served to educate university students and the general population on the promises and challenges of IC technology. In 1995, he published his classic textbook Digital Integrated Circuits: A Design Perspective. The book was the first to address all aspects of the design of digital CMOS circuits and provide a perspective on the accompanying design automation tools. Rabaey was an early adopter of the worldwide web, making assignment problems and designing project ideas for students and lecture slides for instructors available. Rabaey has also had a highly successful research career, specializing in ultra-low energy circuit design, system design and integration, ubiquitous wireless networks, wearable devices, and biomedical interfaces. During his career, he has graduated 61 PhD students who have significantly impacted industry and academia. He has served in university- and national-level leadership roles as director of the Berkeley Wireless Center and the Gigascale Systems Research Center. In 2024, Rabaey, along with his IMEC colleague Pieter Van Nuffel, published the booklet Chips—How Digital Technology Changes the World, intended for a general audience. It serves to educate the general population as well as aspiring students about the role of ICs in society, what they are, how they are manufactured, and what the future may hold.
An IEEE Life Fellow, Rabaey is Professor Emeritus of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA, and Chief Technology Officer, Systems Technology Co-Optimization, imec, Belgium. He is the 2025 recipient of the IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal “For worldwide impact in integrated circuits and systems through inspirational teaching, textbook development, and visionary leadership.”
