| February 6, 2006 Vol. 77, no. 4S
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IEOR professor Rob Leachman is also director of the Competitive Semiconductor
Manufacturing Program. He received an A.B. degree in mathematics
and physics and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in operations research,
all from Berkeley. He joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1979.
His research interests include production planning and scheduling,
management of semiconductor manufacturing, and dynamic production
models.
(Photo provided by Rob Leach)
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Professor Minute with IEOR professor Rob Leachman
What first inspired
you to go into engineering?
As an undergrad I majored in math and physics, and during summer breaks
I worked blue-collar railroad jobs. After graduation I took a job in
cost analysis and operations planning at the railroad headquarters.
It was great fun. We were a new department, we formulated our own projects,
and we had some successes. I found out from co-workers that what I
was doing was called IEOR.
To date, what has been
the most memorable moment in your career?
If I had to single out particular moments: the first run of the wood-chip
train I designed; when I made the presentation about the Harris Semiconductor
planning project in the Edelman Competition; and the day Samsung’s
chip-making cycle time dropped below 30 days (from over 80 days when
I started working with them).
Whom do you most admire?
Cincinnatus comes to mind, as well as the Crusades figure Orlando Bloom
portrays in the recent “Kingdom of Heaven” movie.
If you had a few extra
hours, what would you do?
I like to play jazz piano. I also like to take photos of trains up
in the mountains, but that requires a few extra days, not hours.
What are you currently reading?
I recently finished Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, The
World is Flat by
Tom Friedman, Freakonomics by Steven Leavitt, and The
Game by Neil
Strauss.
What is one thing you would like to learn how to do?
I’ve been aspiring to make a difference in the world ever since
I was a kid. I’m still learning.
If you would like us
to feature your favorite professor, please e-mail his or her name to
engnews@coe.berkeley.edu.
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