This year, IMEC celebrates
its 25th birthday. On January 16, 1984, the memorandum of association of IMEC
was signed, and on March 15, now exactly 25 years ago, IMEC appeared as newly
established research center in the Belgian Statute Books
Today, 25 years later, IMEC has grown into a world-renowned institute addressing
with its nanoelectronics research some of the major challenges of our planet
and its people: communication, mobility, education, environment, energy, and
the ageing population.
Gilbert Declerck, IMEC's CEO: "We owe our success to the grand vision
and passion of our founder, Professor Roger Baron Van Overstraeten, and to the
enthusiasm and dedication of all our co-workers. A perfect combination of acquired
knowhow and experience, with the continued influx of young talent from all over
the world has been, and still is, essential for research at high level. But
also the collaboration with the Flemish Government and government agencies,
and with universities and international and national partners has contributed
to our success. Together, we succeeded to put Flanders on the map of micro-
and nanoelectronics."
Predicting the next 25 year is difficult. IMEC is ready to tackle the challenges
of the nanoelectronics era. Together with the leading semiconductor companies,
we will continue to scale IC technology. Additionally, more and more attention
will go to adding extra functionality
on chips. We also feel that the momentum is building to expand the other research
areas in which we are active, like solar energy, biomedical electronics and
photonics together with our academic and industrial partners. IMEC aims at answering
some of the grand challenges that our society is facing. We are convinced that
nanotechnology may offer solutions to the call for affordable healthcare in
our ageing society, and to the increasing need for renewable energy supply.
It is our ambition to be top class in these strategic research domains, and
to contribute to the world of tomorrow, where centers of excellence will play
and important role.
To celebrate our 25th birthday, we organize on April 2 in Brussels, the academic
colloquium: 'Facing the world of society, science, technology, industry and
education in the 21st century'. On June 3 and 4, IMEC launches the IMEC Technology
Forum (ITF), an industry networking event that will focus on the theme "Innovation
in the next 25 years of science and technology". The IMEC Technology Forum
will bring together executives from world-leading companies and institutes in
Asia, Europe and the USA to discuss the future of ICs and future applications
for biomedical electronics, energy and communication in the next 25 years. More
information on www.imec25years.be