Team

Santosh K. Kurinec

Santosh K. Kurinec is a Fellow of IEEE and Professor of Electrical & Microelectronic Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). She served as the Department Head of Microelectronic Engineering from 2001-2009 after which she took an academic year sabbatical at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY as a visiting scholar.

Dr. Kurinec received Ph.D. in Physics from University of Delhi, India with thesis on high permeability Mn-Zn ferrites. During her school years, as a National Science Talent Scholar, she interned at IIT, Delhi, IIT Kanpur, Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). After her doctorate, she worked as Scientist at National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi from 1980-85 where she helped develop a polysilicon photovoltaics program.

She came to the US as an international participant to the Training in Alternative Energy Program at University of Florida. She became a postdoctoral research associate at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at University of Florida, Gainesville, FL from 1985-1986 where she researched on thin metal film composites and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. She then joined the newly created joint college of engineering between Florida State University/Florida A & M University College of Engineering in Tallahassee, FL as Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering. Her research involved light emission from silicon based light emission devices and high temperature superconducting thin films. She joined RIT as an Associate Professor in 1988.

Dr. Kurinec is a Fellow of IEEE, Member American Physical Society, NY State Academy of Sciences, Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Education and an IEEE Electron Device Society Distinguished Lecturer. She received the 2012 IEEE Technical Field Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching.

She received the RIT Trustee Scholarship Award in 2008 and was honored as the Engineer with Distinction by the Rochester Engineering Society in 2013. She has been actively engaged in outreach for promoting engineering education.

Her current research activities include nonvolatile memory, photovoltaics, advanced integrated circuit materials and processes. In nonvolatile memory area, her research has focused on magnetic tunneling and phase change memory devices. In photovoltaics area, she is a member researcher of the NSF funded NCSU and Georgia Tech based center – Silicon Solar Consortium (SiSoC). She brings her experience of integrating a wide range of electronic materials on silicon CMOS/MEMS platform at RIT. She extensively collaborates with industry and academia.

She has over 100 publications in research journals and conference proceedings.