Gerald T. Marcyk

Retired Director of Components Research, Intel Corporation

• BS, 1973, Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• MS, 1976, Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• PhD, 1978, Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Jerry Marcyk joined Intel Corporation in Hillsboro, Oregon after graduating from Illinois in 1978. Over the 24 years Marcyk worked there, he served in a variety of roles. He started as a process engineer working on memory and microprocessor development.  His research on ion implantation at the Coordinated Science Laboratory during graduate school is what led him to join Intel’s DRAM technology development group.

As a member of Intel’s Logic Technology Development division, he worked on every microprocessor technology from the 386 through multiple generations of the Pentium. His last position before his retirement was director of components research, which made him responsible for silicon research with groups in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, and a dedicated research building in Oregon.

His research group set industry performance standards for transistor performance, advanced lithography, metal interconnects, and packaging.  Marcyk's research paved the way for the next three generations of microprocessor development and communication technology.

He holds several patents in silicon technology and has delivered multiple keynote speeches at international technical conferences. Marcyk served as a member of the Technical Advisory Board of the Materials Science Department at Cornell University, as a member of the Technical Advisory Board of the Semiconductor Research Corporation, and was on the board of trustees of the Portland Waldorf School. In 2001, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Illinois.

He retired from Intel in 2002 and his retirement has been far from typical. Professionally, he has served on the board of directors for two start-up companies. The adventure lies within his personal life. During retirement, he has learned conversational Italian, been charged by a grizzly bear in Alaska, and swam with sharks in the Great Barrier Reef. Additionally, he sank an outrigger canoe in Bora Bora, hiked sections of the Pacific Crest Trail, been perhaps too close to flowing lava from the Kilauea volcano, rode on Cycle Oregon, petted a cheetah in South Africa, and survived a near-drowning in Hawaii. However, his favorite adventure has been marrying his incredible wife on a beach in Kauai.

His most notable accomplishments are family. His daughter, Emilia, has a Master’s degree from the School of Information Sciences at Illinois and is on the faculty at Michigan State University.  His son, Paul, is a PhD candidate in organic chemistry at Indiana University. His stepson, Nick, has a PhD in literature and is a faculty member at University of South Alabama.