Bahgat Sammakia, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Integrated Electronics Engineering Center, has been named interim vice president for research effective August 1. President Lois B. DeFleur made the announcement.

Sammakia, who will continue to devote a portion of his time to the IEEC, will serve while the University conducts a national search to replace Frances Carr, who is leaving to become vice president for research and dean of the graduate college at the University of Vermont..

Sammakia received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1977, from the University of Alexandria in Egypt. He received the masters and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering in 1980 and 82 respectively from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His research work was in the areas of natural convection heat transfer. After graduating from SUNY, Sammakia worked at the University of Pennsylvania as a postdoctoral fellow.

Sammakia joined IBM in 1984 as an engineer in the thermal management area. In 1985 he was promoted to manager of the thermal management department. Sammakia continued to work in IBM until 1998, in various management positions, including managing the thermal and mechanical analysis groups, the surface science group, the chemical lab, the site technical assurance group, and his last position in IBM was manager of development for organic packaging in the IBM Microelectronics division.

He became director of the IEEC, which was established in 1991, in 1998.

Sammakia holds seven US patents and twelve IBM technical disclosures; he has published over 50 technical papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings. Sammakia has contributed to three books on natural convection heat transfer.

Under Sammakia’s leadership, the IEEC, a New York State Center for Advanced Technology, pursues research in electronics packaging. Electronics packaging is the process by which a semiconductor chip, with its circuitry, is brought to a form that can be integrated effectively into a larger microelectronics assembly. The IEEC’s mission is to foster economic development in the state by conducting innovative electronics packaging research and to speed the transfer of new technologies to the private sector.

IEEC membership includes several levels. ADI becomes the seventh full member of the center that also includes IBM Microelectronics, Lockheed Martin Systems Integration, GE Corporate Research and Development, Universal Instruments, BAE Systems Controls and others. With more than 50 other partners at the participating or associate member levels, the IEEC annually contributes $30 million to the region’s economic base. Full membership in IEEC costs about $60,000 per year and gives companies access to the center’s research capabilities, including the expertise of student and faculty researchers, diagnostic equipment, literature, laboratories and the broad scope of intellectual property gathered or produced by the center.