Sheldon Weinig

Sheldon Weinig (born in New York City) is an American businessman who studied at Columbia University, where he received his doctorate and was a professor. In 1957, he founded Materials Research Corporation (MRC), a global manufacturer and supplier of specialized semiconductor materials and equipment.

Early years
Weinig attended Stuyvesant High School, a magnet school in New York. After completing high school, he served in the United States Army for two years and received his education on the GI Bill and was awarded a doctorate in metallurgy from Columbia University in 1955.

Career
Weinig as a professor at Cooper Union and New York University for several years and then went on to found MRC. MRC introduced leading-edge manufacturing equipment to the semiconductor industry. In 1989, it was acquired by Sony. The U.S. government objected to the sale but the company needed a large infusion of capital and no American-owned company was prepared to make the investment to purchase it and keep it (and its technology) intact. Weinig remained with Sony for nearly seven years as vice chairman for engineering and manufacturing of Sony America. He retired from Sony in 1995 and has been an adjunct professor at Columbia University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he teaches a bridge course between academia and the industrial world.

Publications
In 2018 Weinig published a book entitled Rule Breaker - An Entrepreneur's Manifesto.

Awards and recognition
1980: Awarded the SEMMY Award, by the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Institute 1984: Inducted into the National Academy of Engineering for "the development of high purity, highly characterized materials, and technological processing equipment for electronic and metallurgical applications" 1988: Awarded the rank of Chevalier dans l’Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur by the Government of France 1990: Elected to the International Technology Institute’s Hall of Fame for Engineering, Science and Technology

He also received three honorary doctorates from St. Thomas Aquinas College (law), Adelphi University (science) and the State university of New York at Stony Brook (science).