Alumnus Sandwip Dey M.S. ’80, PhD ’84 presents 2025 John F. McMahon Lecture

Alfred University alumnus Sandwip Dey, M.S. '80, PhD '84, delivered the John F. McMahon Memorial Lecture on Thursday, Nov. 13, in Holmes Auditorium, Harder Hall. Dey, who is professor of materials science and engineering at Arizona State University, discussed the electronics industry and the role semiconductor development has and will continue to play in the industry's rapid growth.

Advances in digital electronics is driven by the growth of the semiconductor "ecosystem and market," Dey said. He pointed to resources provided in the federal CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which provided more than $50 billion in funding to support domestic semiconductor manufacturing, research, and workforce development. The law incentivizes companies to pursue research and development of new semiconductor technologies and build or expand manufacturing facilities in the United States.

"Mechanical and electrical engineers will be very important" to the effort to boost the domestic semiconductor industry," Dey said. "Materials (like ceramics, which are commonly used in semiconductors) enables all of this."

Semiconductors, Dey noted, are key to the power electronics industry, whichuses solid-state semiconductor devices to control and convert electric power efficiently. Unlike traditional electronics, which handle low-power signals for data processing, power electronics deals with substantial amounts of electrical energy, often at high voltages and currents.

Applications for power electronics include power generation, power transmission and distribution, and power control. It is used in renewable energy systems, such as inverters for solar panels and converters for wind turbines to condition power for the grid; in electric vehicles, managing the power flow between the battery and the motor; and for high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission for long-distance power transmission systems using converters to send power more efficiently. "Power electronics is very important in this age of alternative energy sources," Dey said.

Continued advances in semiconductor research and development, and manufacturing are crucial to the U.S. economy going forward, due to the expanding number of applications for the digital and power electronics industries. Dey pointed to the massive amounts of energy consumed by data collection and storage facilities and though advances in artificial intelligence as reasons the United States is making domestic semiconductor manufacturing a priority. While semiconductor design is dominated by the U.S., manufacturing facilities are located throughout the world. These facilities include "foundries," which manufacture semiconductor chips for other companies that design chips but lack the factories to produce them.

"We have competition," Dey said, noting that there are manufacturing facilities in Europe, which has its own version of the CHIPS Act, and China.

Dey's lecture was titled "Ceramics in MOSFET-enabled electronics." According to the lecture abstract, "The electronics industry is an exceptionally innovative, interdisciplinary R&D-intensive, and one of the most advanced that humans have developed. It is highly reliant on semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs), especially the ubiquitous metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), working in tandem with essential passive components and interconnects within advanced electronic packages."

The electronics industry, Dey notes, enables artificial intelligence, telecommunications and cloud networking, infotainment, healthcare, banking and security, transportation, manufacturing, and high-performance computing "revolutions." "The industry, with its complex global network, is slated to grow to multi-trillion dollars by 2030."

Sandwip Dey M.S. '80, PhD '84 (second from left) received the John F. McMahon Memorial Lecture Award at a luncheon following his lecture Thursday, Nov. 13. Also pictured are, from left: Gabrielle Gaustad '04, dean of the Inamori School of Engineering at Alfred University; William LaCourse, emeritus profess of glass science and Dey's PhD advisor at Alfred; and Mark Zupan, Alfred University president.

Dey earned a bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in India and went on to earn master's and doctoral degrees in ceramic engineering from Alfred University. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Dey joined the Arizona State University (ASU) faculty in 1987. Currently, he is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in SEMTE, Ira Fulton Schools of Engineering, Arizona State University and is affiliated with the Center for Solid State Electronics Research and the Center for Interventional Biomaterials.

He has over 400 peer-reviewed publications and presentations, 20 technical reports, two book chapters, and six patents, and has received the President's Fund Award from Caltech and the Rainer Zuleeg Award from the International Symposium on Integrated Ferroelectrics organization. He was the Editor of Electro-ceramics in the Encyclopedia of Advanced Materials and Technology (Elsevier, 2001) and is the Co-Chair of the IEEE-International Symposium on Integrated Functionalities component.

Dey took time during his lecture to reflect on his time at Alfred and thank several people, including faculty at Alfred University, who helped him on his academic, scientific and professional journeys. They included Bill LaCourse, emeritus professor of glass science, Dey's PhD advisor at Alfred, and James Reed, emeritus professor of ceramic engineering, his master's degree advisor; Vasantha Amarakoon, emeritus professor of materials science and engineering; L. David Pye, Robert Condrate, and Arun Varshneya, emeriti professors of glass science; and Vern Burdick, late emeritus professor of ceramic engineering.

"The most important thing I got out of this place was civility and decency," he said of Alfred University. "I was given the opportunity to innovate. It was fun. There was no micromanagement. I was free to do what I wanted to do, given the problem at hand."

A luncheon followed the lecture, where Gabrielle Gaustad '04, dean of the Inamori School of Engineering, presented Dey with the John F. McMahon Memorial Lecture Award, which is presented annually to an outstanding ceramic engineer. The award was created by alumni in honor of the late John F. McMahon, an alumnus, a professor and finally, dean of what is now the Inamori School of Engineering.

Mark Zupan, Alfred University president, presents 2025 John F. McMahon Memorial Lecturer Sandwip Dey with a box of mangoes. When Dey arrived in New York City from his native India in 1979 to begin his graduate studies at Alfred, all he had were $50 and a box of mangoes. Airport personnel wouldn't let him keep the fruit, something Zupan and Alfred University rectified on Thursday.

At the luncheon, Alfred University President related a story (told to him by Dey) about Dey's first arriving in the United States before beginning his graduate studies at Alfred. Dey, who grew up in Calcutta, India, landed at a New York City airport with just $50 in his pocket and 12 mangoes.

"They (airport personnel) wouldn't let him keep the mangoes," Zupan said, before presenting him with a box containing a dozen pieces of the fruit. "We want to make up for the mistake our country made back in 1979."

Prior to the lecture, Gaustad announced that Jane Heffernan, a senior ceramic engineering major (chemistry, mathematics minor) from Eden, NY, is the 2025 recipient of the McMahon Achievement Award. The award is given in recognition of a student's outstanding co-op or internship experience. Heffernan is completing an internship with Moog. Heffernan was unable to attend the lecture and will be recognized at next spring's annual Honors Convocation.