CHARLIE (BOB) HELMS
Since finishing a 5-year term as Dean of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering & Computer Science at UT Dallas, Bob Helms has been pursuing research and teaching interests in the area of energy and natural resource sustainability. He led the UT System Initiative for Engineering Education in the 21st Century in 2014 and 2015. The initiative led to over $1B in funding for engineering facilities at the UT System academic components.
Professor Helms was a member of the Board of Directors of GlobalFoundries, Inc., in 2013. He was the Founding Director of UTD’s Institute for Intelligent Energy Systems, established in October, 2009. During his tenure and Dean, from 2003 – 2008 Dr. Helms led the Jonsson School to a top-50 ranking in public university engineering schools. He added 25 faculty members during that period, leading to a final total near 100. The Materials Science department was formed and the 200,000 sq. ft. Natural Science & Engineering Research Laboratory were funded and completed during his tenure as Dean.
Dr. Helms served on UT System’s core team with Lockheed Martin to secure the management contract for the Los Alamos National Lab. Prior to coming to UTD, Dr. Helms was a member of Governor Perry’s Texas Enterprise Fund and Project Emmitt economic development teams – Project Emmitt provided much of the funding for the Jonsson School’s expansion during his 5-year term.
Prior to joining UT Dallas, Dr. Helms served as CEO and President of International SEMATECH (ISMT) from 2000 to 2003. From 1997 through 2001, Helms was Corporate Vice President and Director of Silicon Technology Research at Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas and was responsible for TI’s advanced R&D in silicon process, equipment and materials technology. He also oversaw TI’s partnerships with ISMT, suppliers, and research institutes. Dr. Helms came to TI from Stanford University, where he was a professor of electrical engineering from 1976 to 1999. At Stanford, he also served as Director of Solid State Industrial Affiliates. He was named Professor Emeritus in 1999.
During his academic career, Dr. Helms led research efforts on semiconductor processing and the development of new materials and nanotechnology. Subsequent work focused on flexible manufacturing and environmentally friendly semiconductor processing. Dr. Helms was one of the founding associate directors of the NSF/SRC Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing. The group, headquartered at the University of Arizona, conducts research to promote “green” manufacturing of semiconductors. He has served in numerous consulting roles and as an expert witness in numerous cases related to semiconductor technology.
Dr. Helms holds a B.S. in Engineering Physics from the University of California, Berkeley; and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi.
