Shanghai University of Electric Power has appointed Dr. Richard Chang, widely known as the "Father of China's Semiconductor Industry," as a distinguished professor, marking another high-profile addition to China's academic and industrial talent base.

According to the university, Chang is regarded as a seminal figure in the global semiconductor sector. After earning his bachelor's degree from National Taiwan University, he pursued graduate studies in the U.S., receiving a master's in engineering science from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Southern Methodist University.

Chang spent two decades at Texas Instruments, where he played a key role in the construction and operation of several fabs worldwide. Driven by a mission to advance China's chip industry, he went on to found Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), as well as Grace Semiconductor, Shanghai Xinsheng Semiconductor, and Qixin IC, among others. His efforts are credited with enabling China's leap from having no domestic chip production to establishing a competitive industry, overcoming multiple technology bottlenecks in the process.

At the appointment ceremony, Chang expressed gratitude for the university's trust and said the role was both "an honor and a responsibility." He pledged to help strengthen talent development, faculty teams, and industry-academia collaboration platforms, with the goal of deepening integration between education and industry.

Separately, Tsinghua University's Institute for Integrated Circuits announced that Sophie Su, a 20-year Intel veteran, has joined as a tenured professor and doctoral advisor. She has also been named Xinghua Chair Professor.

Su earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in automation from Tsinghua University in 1999 and 2001, before completing a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering at Duke University in 2006. She then spent nearly two decades at Intel as a chip architect before returning to China this year.

Her research spans chip testing, reliability design, and lifecycle management, with an emphasis on challenges in testability, safety, and resilience at both circuit and architectural levels. Su's innovations—ranging from 3D chiplet testing to functional safety in analog chips and intelligent sensors—have been incorporated into industry-standard products. She has also contributed to international technical standards as part of IEEE and served as associate editor of IEEE Design & Test.

The appointments underscore China's continuing push to attract global semiconductor talent back home, aiming to bolster both academic research and industrial innovation as the competition for chip leadership intensifies.