News Archives - 2000

Micro devices with gears nearly invisible to the naked eye will soon lead to less invasive surgery procedures, software-locking devices that thwart computer hackers, and to countless consumer products, such as golf clubs that can analyze a golfer's swing. So says Dr. David Bishop, head of the Micromechanics Research Department of Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies.

These devices and the ability to build them, referred to as "micromechanics," will comprise the second silicon revolution, Bishop says. This revolution will change the world in the same way that the first silicon revolution brought us microelectronics--common in computers, digital watches and airbag sensors.

Bishop will discuss micro-electro-mechanical systems in a free public lecture at 8 p.m. on Monday, April 17 in Augsburg College's Hoversten Chapel (located in the Foss Center at the corner of Riverside and 22nd avenues south).

The lecture is the featured event in Augsburg's 10th annual General Leif J. Sverdrup Visiting Scientist Program, held this year on April 17-18. The Sverdrup Visiting Scientist Program was established in 1990 by Johan N. Sverdrup of St. Louis, Mo., in memory of his father, Maj. Gen. Leif J. Sverdrup, a 1918 Augsburg graduate who was honored in 1958 as an Augsburg Distinguished Alumnus.

Bishop's visit is co-sponsored by the Minnesota Space Grant Consortium, of which Augsburg is a member. The NASA-funded consortium supports students with undergraduate and graduate scholarships and works with Minnesota schools to develop strong science, mathematics and technology programs.

Bishop earned a doctorate degree in physics in 1978 from Cornell University. He then entered a postdoctoral technical staff position at Bell Laboratories, and by 1989 had become a distinguished member of the technical staff and head of the Liquid Crystal Research Department.