Draft:Tomás Palacios

Tomás A. Palacios Gutiérrez (born 1978) is a Spanish–American professor and researcher in semiconductor technologies. He holds the chair Clarence J. LeBel Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and serves as director of Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL).

Early life and education
Palacios was born in 1978 in Jaén, Spain.

Palacios completed a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunications and Electrical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid in 2001, followed by a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara in 2004. He then did a doctoral degree there which he defended in 2006, under supervisor Umesh Mishra, with his dissertation titled Optimization of the high frequency performance of nitride-based transistors.

Career
Soon after finishing his doctorate, Palacios joined the MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department as an Associate Professor in 2006. Since 1 July 2023, Palacios hold the chair Clarence J. LeBel Professor for "his groundbreaking research, excellent teaching and mentoring, and exceptional contributions to the department and to MIT".

Palacios holds directorships in various centers and programs, including being founding director of the MTL Center for Graphene Devices and 2D Systems and MTL Gallium Nitride (GaN) Energy Initiative (MIT-GaN); Associate Director of SUPeRior Energy-efficient Materials and dEvices (SUPREME) Center; coordinator of 6A Masters in Engineering (6A M.Eng.) program from 2015–2023; fellow of the Fundacion Gadea; IEEE Fellow; general chair and executive committee member for the 2022 IEEE Symposium on Very Large-Scale Integration Technology (VLSI) and Circuits.

Research
Palacios's research focuses on studying new materials and device architectures, especially those based on 2D materials and compound semiconductors, for applications in electronics, optoelectronics, telecommunications and other fields of technology. The work on novel structures includes new types of FinFET geometries like vertical GaN-on-Si that would be potentially more power efficient and could be used in power electronics applications.

Commercialization
Palacios and collaborators have taken steps to commercialize some of the research. This includes via the company Finwave Semiconductor Inc. of which Palacios is a co-founder.

Honors and awards
Palacios has received multiple awards and honors. Some are listed below.
 * Intel's Outstanding Researcher Award in 2020
 * Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2012
 * 2019 IEEE George Smith Award