Robert J. Mattauch

Robert J. Mattauch

Inducted in 2017

Robert Mattauch earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1964 and 1967. He joined the EE faculty of UVa in 1996 where he taught many undergraduate courses, initiated semiconductor device research in the Commonwealth and founded the UVa Semiconductor Device Lab. Mattauch and his team collaborated with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab on millimeter wave device designed and fabrication for detection of chlorine monoxide, responsible for the disassociation of stratospheric ozone molecules (ozone hole).

In 1996 he moved to the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA where he served as founding Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. Subsequently, he served as Dean of the School from 1999 until his retirement in 2007. During this time, he was responsible for building and funding 2 buildings with over 250,000 sq. ft. of teaching and research space, achieving the School’s first ABET accreditation with a level of 6 V (highest possible) for all eligible departments, established the School’s graduate / research program, and began both Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi chapters.

Dr. Mattauch’s love of teaching and research is indicated by his receiving the Western Electric Fund Award of the ASEE for excellence in teaching engineering students, the T. Holmes MacDonald Award of Eta Kappa Nu as an Outstanding EE Educator in 1975, being listing in Washington Technology as one of the Top Ten Technology Talents of 1990, being elected to the level of Fellow of the IEEE in 1987, receiving an IEEE Centennial Medal, and being honored by the IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology as one of its 23 Terahertz Pioneers.