Hess: Swanlund Chair

Chair: Swanlund Chair

Fifteen University of Illinois scholars have been appointed to endowed chairs made possible by a gift from the late Maybelle Leland Swanlund. Swanlund, who died in 1993, provided an endowment of $12 million to attract leading figures in the arts and sciences to the University or to recognize outstanding scholars already on faculty.

Faculty: Karl Hess

Karl Hess is one of four UI scholars that was appointed to endowed professorships made possible by a gift from the late Maybelle Leland Swanlund. Swanlund, who died August 10, 1993, provided an endowment of $12 million for 10 chairs to attract leading figures in the arts and sciences to the UI or to recognize outstanding current faculty members.

Hess, who earned his doctorate from the University of Vienna in Austria in 1970, recently made news with colleague Joe Lyding for discovering a way to extend the life of silicon microchips as much as 50 times. Hess, who joined the UI faculty in 1977, has received international recognition for his contributions to the study of high-field transport in semiconductors.

Excerpted from: "UI scholars named to four Swanlund Chairs"