Staff

Rajni (Raj) Aggarwal attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for her undergraduate and graduate studies, receiving her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1996.  She began her career at Texas Instruments as a summer student in the late 1980s and eventually joined full-time after her graduate work was complete.  Raj worked in III-V resonant tunneling devices in graduate school and in the TI Central Research Laboratories during her internships.  She made a switch to silicon when she returned to TI after her doctorate, landing in the advanced CMOS development organization at TI.  She has been involved in CMOS device design and process integration following the general advancement of the CMOS nodes for over 25 years.  Her work involved digital and analog CMOS, BiCMOS, and Bipolar technologies across eight different TI production fabs.  In particular, she specialized in rapid technology deployment and understanding process/circuit interactions in technology nodes with near-term commercial impact. Raj retired from TI in 2022 and recently joined the North Texas Semiconductor Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas. 

Robert Baumann received his BA in Physics from Bowdoin College in 1984, where he was awarded the Noel C. Little Prize in Experimental Physics and earned his Ph.D. in ECE from Rice University in 1990.  At Texas Instruments, he discovered the reaction of ¹⁰B with cosmic neutrons in specific IC layers was a dominant risk and developed mitigation that reduced product failure rates ten-fold industry-wide. He was directly responsible for the development of several JEDEC test standards, and for leading an SIA experts panel that convinced the U.S. Government to enact changes in ITAR export controls that ultimately removed the risk of inadvertent restrictions on the U.S. commercial industry. In 2018 he left TI and divided his time between consulting for a variety of aerospace and terrestrial customers, and held a position as an adjunct R&D professor at SMU where he led research on radiation effects in gallium nitride devices. He recently moved to UTD where he is currently building the radiation effects characterization and modeling capabilities of the Center for Harsh Environment Semiconductors and Systems(CHESS). Robert is a TI Fellow (emeritus) and IEEE Fellow, has coauthored > 100 papers/presentations, TI’s Radiation Handbook for Electronics, two book chapters, and 17patents.

Dr. Mona Ghassemi is Associate Professor and Director of ZEROES Lab (Zero Emission, Realization of Optimized Energy Systems), and holds the Texas Instruments Chair in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas.

Her research interests include transportation electrification, clean energy, electrical insulation materials and systems, high voltage/field engineering and technology, power systems, power electronics, and plasma science. She is a Professional Engineer and Senior Member of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). She received three of the most prestigious and competitive career awards which are the Department of Energy (DOE) Early Career Research Program Award, the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) Award. Dr. Ghassemi is an At-Large Member of the Administrative Committee of the IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS), and DEIS Representative in the IEEE USA Public Policy Committee on Transportation and Aerospace Policy (CTAP) and USA Technology Policy Council R&D Policy Committee

Bruce Gnade received his BA in Chemistry from St. Louis University in 1976 and his Ph.D. in Nuclear Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1982. He is the Chief Scientist at Mustang Optics, LLC, and Professor Emeritus at UT Dallas.  He was the Executive Director of the Hart Center for Engineering Leadership in the Lyle School of Engineering at SMU from 2017-2022.  He was the Vice President for Research and the Distinguished Chair in Microelectronics at UT Dallas from 2006-2016.  He was a program manager in the Microsystems Technology Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from 1996-1999.  At Texas Instruments he led several research and technology groups from 1982-1996.  His current research interests focus on electronic materials and devices, and their application to systems ranging from radiation detectors to novel sensors.  He is a Fellow of APS, IEEE, and National Academy of Inventors, and is Chair of the Board of Directors of Oak Ridge Associated Universities.  He was awarded the 2021 IEEE J.J. Ebers award.

Rashaunda M. Henderson received the BSEE degree from Tuskegee University in 1992 and the MS and PhD degrees, also in electrical engineering, from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1994 and 1999, respectively.  She joined Motorola Semiconductor Product Sector in Tempe, AZ, and worked as a research and development device engineer focusing on passive circuits integration in the microwave and mixed-signal technology labs for wireless embedded systems.  She joined The University of Texas at Dallas in 2007 as an Assistant Professor in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. She is now a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and Interim Co-Department Head. Dr. Henderson is co-founder of the High-Frequency Circuits and Systems Laboratory, which facilitates millimeter-wave design and development of components, circuits, and integrated packages and antennas for wireless communication systems. She has co-authored more than 100 journal and conference papers focusing on packaging and integration for high-frequency applications. Dr. Henderson is a Senior Member of the IEEE and the 2022 President of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) Administrative Committee. She is passionate about educating the next generation of students and encouraging them to seek careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Dr. Ifana Mahbub is an Assistant Professor and the Texas Instrument’s Early Career Chair Awardee in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas, where she is leading the Integrated Biomedical, RF Circuits and Systems Laboratory (iBioRFCASL). Her research interests include energy-efficient integrated circuits and systems design for read-out, wireless communication, and wireless power transfer for various implantable and wearable sensors. Her recent research interests also include Ultra-Wideband/mm-wave phased-array antenna design for far-field wireless power transfer/V2V communication for UAVs. She received a B.Sc. degree (2012) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, and a Ph.D. degree (2017) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Dr. Mahbub is the recipient of the NSF “Early Career Award” (2020), and the DARPA “Young Faculty Award” (2021). She has served as the publicity chair for the IEEE Dallas Circuits & Systems Society (DCAS). She also serves as the secretary for the URSI commission K, as a guest editor for the IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation and MDPI Sensors Journal, as a Young Professional co-chair for the IEEE Sensors conference, and as the publications chair for the IEEE Texas Symposium on Wireless and Microwave Circuits and System (TSWMCS) and IEEE Dallas Circuits and System (DCAS) conferences.

Ted Moise earned a B.S. degree in Physics and Engineering from Trinity College, Hartford, CT, in 1987.  In 1992, he earned a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Yale University and was awarded the Harding Bliss Prize for excellence in Engineering and Applied Science.  Ted joined TI in 1992 where he was responsible for the development of high-performance quantum-effect devices and circuits and served as program manager for several DARPA-sponsored projects.  In 1997, Ted started work on the development of scaled ferroelectric capacitors leading to the first demonstration of low-voltage, high-density, embedded ferroelectric random-access memory.  Since achieving FRAM production on the 130nm node in 2007, TI and its partners have designed and sold FRAM-based products with applications ranging from implantable medical devices to ultra-low-power micro-controllers and automotive data recorders.  From 2007-2018, Ted led technology development teams focusing on non-volatile memory, high-performance analog CMOS, high-performance/low-noise BiCMOS, and sensor technology.  From 2018 to 2021, Ted managed TI’s advanced electrical failure analysis and physical failure analysis laboratories.  After retiring from Texas Instruments in 2021, Ted joined the University of Texas at Dallas as a Research Scientist.  Ted also serves as the director of the North Texas Semiconductor Institute.

Prof. Manuel Quevedo is Professor and Department Head in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Quevedo has published more than 320 papers, 4 book chapters, and holds 15 US patents with 8 more pending. His current research includes nanostructured materials and devices for large-area sensors and harsh environments. His research is supported by The National Science Foundation (NSF), The Air Force Office of Sponsored Research (AFOSR), Defense Advanced Research Projects (DARPA), Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO), Conacyt, Department of Homeland Security, Texas Instruments, CERFE labs, among others.

Chadwin D. Young received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Univ. of Texas at Austin in 1996 and his M.S. and Ph.D. in EE from North Carolina State University in 1998 and 2004, respectively.  In 2001, he joined SEMATECH where he completed his dissertation research on high-k gate stacks and continued this research at SEMATECH working up to Senior Member of the Technical Staff on electrical characterization and reliability methodologies for the evaluation of high-k gate stacks on current and future device architectures. He joined the Materials Science and Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering Departments in August 2012 where his research focus is on electrical characterization and reliability methodologies for the evaluation of future materials and devices. Throughout this time, he has authored or co-authored 310+ journals, conferences, and invited papers. He is an NSF CAREER Award recipient and currently leads an NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) in electronic materials and devices for use in energy, electronics, nanotechnology, and sensing/detecting. In addition, he has innovated new course offerings, interacted with undergraduate education entities, and conducted K-12 outreach to increase a diverse, innovative, and globally competitive workforce in semiconductor manufacturing. He has chaired or served: on the management or technical program committees of IIRW, IRPS, SISC, IEDM, ICMTS, SNW; as Guest Editor for IEEE Transactions on Device and Materials Reliability; and as a peer reviewer for several journals.  He is currently a Senior Member of IEEE and serves as a Device Reliability Physics Committee Member of the IEEE Electron Device Society.

Eden Zielinski received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Science and Engineering, all from Stanford University, where she graduated with her final degree in 1995.  She joined the semiconductor industry upon graduation, first working for Texas Instruments as an integration engineer on BEOL interconnects.  In her 26-year career in the industry she has worked for Texas Instruments, Micron Technology, Advanced Micro Devices, and GlobalFoundries on BEOL processing and most recently was working on Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filters for Qorvo.  She has worked on improving Aluminum interconnect reliability, initial establishment of copper interconnects, integration of copper interconnects with low-k dielectrics, double patterning integration approaches, electrical optimization of BAW filter performance, and BAW filter integration challenges.  Eden joined the North Texas Semiconductor Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas in 2023 to serve as the Workforce Development Coordinator where she aims to increase the number of high school students engaging in careers in technology.