Phil Kaufman Hall of Fame

Since the first Phil Kaufman Award for Distinguished Contributions to Electronic System Design (ESD) was presented in 1994, several outstanding members of our community have been honored with this award, co-sponsored by the ESD Alliance and the IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA).

A policy set by the IEEE, however, does not allow awards to be given to those who are no longer alive. Therefore, some well-deserving individuals who made significant contributions to the ESD field, but who passed away before their contributions got awarded, are not eligible posthumously for the Phil Kaufman Award.

To resolve this, the ESD Alliance and IEEE CEDA in 2020 created the Phil Kaufman Hall of Fame. This includes all Phil Kaufman awardees as well as selected individuals who are recognized posthumously. All members of the Phil Kaufman Hall of Fame are recognized because they have made significant and noteworthy contributions through creativity, entrepreneurism and innovation to the electronic system design industry. The inaugural honor for the Phil Kaufman Hall of Fame was announced in June 2021.

Every year the ESD Alliance and IEEE CEDA will issue a call for nominations and their selection committees will make the final selection.