The Richard Chu Award for Excellence in Thermal and Thermo-Mechanical Management of Electronics, formerly known as the ITherm Achievement Award was instituted in 1996 and presented in recognition of significant contributions made in thermal and thermo-mechanical aspects of electronics devices and systems. The Award has been re-named to honor late Richard Chu, the first recipient of the ITherm Achievement Award, and a seminal contributor to thermal management of electronics.
The Award, to be presented during the 2025 ITherm Conference includes a memento, a plaque, and a $1500 honorarium. Conference registration, and two nights of lodging will be complimentary. The recipient is expected to present an Invited Lecture on a topic of relevance to the conference themes.
2025 Winner – Chandrakant D. Patel
A former SVP, Chief Engineer, and Senior Fellow at HP Inc. – Chandrakant has been a Silicon Valley contributor for 42 years. Formerly leading HP Labs, he has shaped advancements in chips, high performance computing systems, storage, networking, 3D additive manufacturing systems, and software platforms. Pioneering energy-efficient data center solutions, he founded the Smart Data Center research program at HP Laboratories that led to multi-billion-dollar data center infrastructure and services business. He is a recognized leader in AI, energy efficient computing, and sustainability.
With deep passion for fundamentals, and workforce development, he has also served as adjunct faculty in engineering at UC Berkeley, San Jose State, Santa Clara University and Chabot College for two decades. An IEEE Fellow, ASME Fellow, member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame, Chandrakant holds 167 US patents and has published more than 150 papers. He is a registered professional mechanical engineer in the State of California. Chandrakant has served on the company board of Mphasis, an IT Services Company in India. He has also served on the Industrial Advisory Boards in EECS at UC Berkeley and Mechanical Engineering at Santa Clara University.