Albert Theuwissen of Harvest Imaging honored with European SEMI award 2014

GRENOBLE, FRANCE: Albert Theuwissen, CEO of  Harvest Imaging and professor at Delft University of Technology,  is the recipient of the European SEMI Award 2014.

The award, which recognizes Theuwissen’s outstanding contribution to the continuing education of engineers, was presented during the SEMICON Europa Executive Summit in Grenoble today.

Albert Theuwissen is a highly regarded specialist in solid-state image sensors and digital imaging. He worked for nearly 20 years at Philips Research and then at DALSA in lead engineering and management roles.

In 2001, Theuwissen became a part-time professor at Delft University of Technology.  In 1995, he wrote the textbook “Solid-State Imaging with Charge-Coupled Devices” which is now a standard reference work in the field of solid-state imaging.

After “retiring” in 2007, Theuwissen founded Harvest Imaging and has played a major role in the continuing education of engineers in the field of solid-state imaging and digital cameras.

He has taught and trained over 3,000 engineers at image sensor companies (such as Kodak, Sony, Samsung, Aptina, ST Microelectronics, Micron, Intel, Philips, Canon, DALSA, and Panasonic) and consumer product companies (such as Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, Siemens, Research InMotion, Thomson, and many others). In addition, he has conducted short courses at IEEE’s IEDM, ISSCC, ICIP and SPIE’s Electronic Imaging Conference.

Solid-state image sensors such as the Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) and CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) are complex electron devices.  About one billion image sensor chips are fabricated and sold each year and represent a multi-billion dollar per year IC business segment. Understanding the fabrication and device physics operation of these devices is difficult and is rarely taught in universities at either the undergraduate or graduate level.

Theuwissen has had a major impact on both the continuing education of engineers and the advancement of consumer digital imaging.  Continuing education — outside of the scope of university professors operating as part-time short-course instructors — within the industry is critical. By educating technologists and application specialists, Theuwissen created a successful model for future technological education: the entrepreneur-educator.

“Albert recognized the need for technical education and created a successful continuing education offering that navigates and conforms to the competitive and proprietary IP environment, benefitting thousands of electron-device engineers and also the industry,” said Heinz Kundert, president of SEMI Europe. “It is an honor to recognize Albert for his outstanding contributions to the European semiconductor and microsystems industry.”