IMEC President Roger Joseph Van Overstraeten Dies
-- Semiconductor International, 8/1/1999
Professor Roger Joseph Van Overstraeten, president and founder of the Inter-university Microelectronics Centre (IMEC, Leuven, Belgium) died early in May after a long illness. Under his leadership, IMEC became one of the largest independent research centers in the world for developing and licensing state-of-the-art microelectronics technologies. It collaborates with some 500 companies and research institutes, and its work is admired throughout the world.
Van Overstraeten was born in Vlezenbeek, Belgium, in 1937. He studied at the
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, before earning his Ph.D. at the
University of Stanford in 1963. After returning to Belgium, he founded the
electronics, systems, automation and technology laboratory at the University of
Leuven. He directed its operation until he founded IMEC in 1984 with the
collaboration of the Flemish government. Some 750 workers at IMEC aim to keep
its research 3 to 10 years ahead of industrial needs, balancing their work
between basic research and application-oriented work. IMEC also trains students,
with about 120 working toward a Ph.D. 
