PASADENA—The California Institute of Technology is pleased to announce the election of Alexander Lidow to its Board of Trustees.
Lidow is the chief executive officer of International Rectifier Corporation in El Segundo, California. He joined the company in 1977 as a research and development engineer. Subsequently, he served as vice president of research and development. He was promoted to executive vice president of manufacturing and technology in 1985 and served as president of International Rectifier's electronic products division beginning in 1989. He advanced to executive vice president of operations in 1992 and was named to his current position in March 1995.
A coinventor of the HEXFET® power MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor), Lidow holds nine patents on power semiconductor technology and has authored numerous publications on related subjects.
Lidow earned his BS in applied physics from Caltech in 1975. He received a PhD in applied physics from Stanford University as a Hertz Foundation Fellow. His professional associations include the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Electrochemical Society, and Tau Beta Pi.
A resident of Hermosa Beach, Lidow is married, with two children.
Founded in 1891, Caltech has an enrollment of some 2,000 students, and a faculty of about 280 professorial faculty and 130 research faculty. The Institute has more than 19,000 alumni. Caltech employs a staff of more than 1,700 on campus and 5,300 at JPL.
Over the years, 26 Nobel Prizes and four Crafoord Prizes have been awarded to faculty members and alumni. Forty-three Caltech faculty members and alumni have received the National Medal of Science; and eight alumni (two of whom are also trustees), two additional trustees, and one faculty member have won the National Medal of Technology. Since 1958, 13 faculty members have received the annual California Scientist of the Year award. On the Caltech faculty there are 75 fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and on the faculty and Board of Trustees, 68 members of the National Academy of Sciences and 46 members of the National Academy of Engineering.
