A. Richard Newton

A. Richard Newton
Born	(1951-07-01)1 July 1951 Gardenvale, Australia
Died	2 January 2007(2007-01-02) (aged 55) San Francisco, USA
Nationality	Australian
Alma mater	University of Melbourne University of California Berkeley
Known for	Circuit design CAD
Scientific career
Fields	Electronic Engineer
Institutions	University of California Berkeley
Doctoral advisor	Donald O. Pederson

Arthur Richard Newton (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1 July 1951 – 2 January 2007) was the dean of the University of California, Berkeley College of Engineering.

Newton was educated at the University of Melbourne and received a BE in 1973 and M.Eng.Sci in 1975. He worked at Berkeley from 1975 on SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis), developed initially by Larry Nagel and Donald Pederson to analyze and design complex electronic circuitry with speed and accuracy. It is claimed that nearly all electronic chips now use SPICE or a derivative.

University of California, Berkeley awarded Newton a Ph.D in 1978 and he was appointed to the Engineering Faculty a few months later. He was appointed assistant professor in 1978, associate professor in 1982 and full professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences in 1985. He chaired of department from 1999 to 2000, and was dean of the College of Engineering and the Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering from 2000 until his death.

Robert Birgeneau, Chancellor of UC Berkeley described him as, "Dynamic and entrepreneurial, he understood the power of engineering and technology in entirely new ways, and he connected them to addressing society's toughest problems. The vibrancy of his thinking shaped my own ideas about what engineering is and what it can be. This [his death] is an enormous loss for us at UC Berkeley, for California, and indeed for the international engineering community."

He died at 55 due to pancreatic cancer at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. He was married to Petra Michel, and had two daughters, Neris Newton and Amrita Newton.

In February 2007 a professorship in his honour was established at Berkeley called the Dean A. Richard Newton Memorial Professorship. This was established with funding from the EDA Consortium and other friends, colleagues and corporate partners of Richard Newton. The Professorship will specifically advance the field of synthetic biology, an emerging area in which he took a deep interest.

Awards and recognition

He was the 2003 recipient of the Phil Kaufman Award. The University of Melbourne awarded him an LLD in 2003. He was member of the National Academy of Engineering since 2004 , and in 2006, was named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

External links

• Selected presentations and papers by Richard Newton and articles about him. List provided by UC Berkeley College of Engineering
• Newton's CV
• Newton's New York Times obituary

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