Templeton with members of the Monta Vista High School FIRST Robotics team. SIA invited members of three local FIRST teams to the annual dinner to demonstrate their robots.

Rich Templeton, TI chairman, president and CEO, was recently named the 2012 recipient of The Semiconductor Industry Association's (SIA) highest honor, the Robert N. Noyce Award, for his leadership in STEM reform and his commitment to industry innovation.

SIA presents the Noyce Award annually in recognition of a leader who has made significant contributions to the U.S. semiconductor industry in technology or public policy.

"It was really my dad who introduced me to technology," Templeton said. "What I watched from my dad as a boy — technology and chemistry and part numbers and the names have all changed over 30 years, but the work it takes to ramp this stuff into production, the work it takes to hit high yields and reliability, it's about great skilled people. It's about teamwork, and it hasn't changed in all that time."

STEM advocate
Templeton has been a vigorous advocate for STEM education. During his tenure as CEO, TI and the TI Foundation have contributed more than $150 million to education over the past five years.

"If I think about the greatest challenge this industry will face and as a country, it's about the availability of great, bright minds that are going to drive innovation for the next 30 or 40 years," Templeton said at the awards dinner.

"Half the nation's high schools don't even have calculus, and nearly 40 percent don't have physics. How are you going to have fun in high school without calculus or physics?"

During an awards ceremony recently in San Jose, TI President, Chairman and CEO Rich Templeton was honored as a leader who has made significant contributions to the U.S. semiconductor industry in technology or public policy.

Research, innovation champion
Templeton also has been a longtime champion of research and innovation and an ardent proponent of collaborative research within the industry.

"We literally have daily innovation taking place with applications that count on mobile technology," he said. "Semiconductors are showing up in applications that they were never used before. We have nanotechnology and materials work that's taking place…it's got the promise of another 50 years of breakthroughs."

He said that although events like the awards dinner are a great time to reminisce, "what I get excited about as I travel about our world is that I see the best, the greatest, the smartest people and the dreams are far greater than any memories we have."

The Noyce Award is named in honor of semiconductor industry pioneer Robert N. Noyce, co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel.

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