Introduction
Oregon State University’s College of Engineering has announced the establishment of the Analog Devices Barrie Gilbert Chair in Microelectronics, supported by Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), a global semiconductor leader.
The endowment reflects a decades-long partnership between Oregon State and ADI to advance the fields of microelectronics and integrated circuits. It will help the university attract and retain world-class faculty — scholars whose teaching, research, and industry engagement will elevate engineering education and discovery for future leaders.
The endowment honors Barrie Gilbert, an English-American electrical engineer whose pioneering contributions to analog integrated circuits have influenced generations of engineers. Over nearly 50 years, his direct and indirect contributions to ADI resulted in an array of innovative IC products whose lifetime revenues are estimated at $2 billion. He is best known in industry and academia for the eponymous Gilbert-cell mixer, a breakthrough innovation that has been incorporated into most radios developed over the past four decades. Colleagues admired his uncanny ability to anticipate customer needs, his relentless drive to explore new circuit topologies, and his remarkable talent for inventing solutions on the fly. Gilbert served as ADI’s first Fellow and created the company’s first remote design center in Oregon. Considered one of the best-known analog designers in the industry, he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2009 and holds an honorary doctorate at Oregon State University.
"Barrie Gilbert was a pioneering engineer whose innovations helped shape the modern analog semiconductor industry and continue to influence generations of designers today," said Zoran Zvonar, Fellow and Head of External Research at ADI. "This endowed chair honors Barrie's extraordinary legacy while reinforcing our long-standing partnership with Oregon State University. By supporting world-class faculty and advancing research in microelectronics, we are investing in the talent, ideas, and discoveries that will drive the next generation of semiconductor innovation."
The establishment of the Analog Devices Barrie Gilbert Chair comes at a pivotal moment of semiconductor innovation for the nation and the Pacific Northwest region. It builds upon Oregon State's leadership of FAST (Frontiers of Advanced Semiconductor Technology), a nearly 100-partner consortium recently named an NSF Regional Innovation Engine and positioned to receive up to $160 million over the next decade to grow Oregon's semiconductor ecosystem. Additionally, the endowment aligns with Oregon's Prosperity Roadmap, which calls for growing high-value industries, accelerating innovation, attracting business investment, and developing the skilled workforce needed to support long-term economic growth.
Kearney Dean of Engineering
Blue Primary, Yellow Secondary
Forrest Masters, the Kearney Dean of Engineering at Oregon State, says the investment from ADI will enable the university to build on recent industry advances to accelerate impactful research and strengthen the talent pipeline.
"This chair is a powerful expression of what's possible when a university and an industry partner commit to each other for the long haul," he said. "ADI's investment gives us the ability to recruit and retain faculty who are shaping the future of microelectronics, and it ensures our students learn from some of the best minds in the field."
The College of Engineering anticipates selecting a chair holder within the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science during the 2026-27 school year. The holder will be a leader in the field of integrated circuits and microelectronics, inspiring the next generation of innovations in semiconductor technologies.
About the College of Engineering at Oregon State
The college is a global leader in artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced manufacturing, clean water and energy, materials science, computing, resilient infrastructure and health-related engineering. Among the nation’s largest and most productive engineering programs, the college awards more bachelor’s degrees in computer science than any other institution in the United States. The college ranks second nationally among land-grant universities, and fifth among the nation’s 94 public R1 universities, for percentage of tenured or tenure-track engineering faculty who are women.