In Memoriam
Michael Shur passed away on June 5, 2026, at the age of 83. He was born on November 13, 1942, in Kamensk-Uralsky, Sverdlovsk Oblast, USSR. In 1965, he graduated from the Electrotechnical Institute in Leningrad (presently St. Petersburg), USSR, with the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering. In 1967, he received his Ph.D. degree in Physics from the A.F. Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute of the USSR National Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg.
From 1968 to 1976, Prof. Shur was a Junior Researcher and later Senior Fellow Researcher at the A.F. Ioffe Institute. Later, he became Full Professor at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (1979-1989), John Marshall Money Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of the Applied Electro-physics Laboratory at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville (1989-1996). From 1996 to 2025, he was at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy NY, as Patricia and Sheldon Roberts Professor of Solid-State Electronics, Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, Acting Director of the Center for Integrated Electronics, and Director of RPI site “Connection One” of NSF I/UCRC.
Prof. Shur was a scientific international authority in semiconductor physics, solid state devices, and sensors. He was Life Fellow of IEEE, APS, ECS, and SPIE; Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, AAAS, OSA, IET, MRS, and other professional societies. He had a prominent participation in IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS), IEEE Sensors Council, and IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices (Member at Large of the IEEE EDS Board of Governors, Vice-President of IEEE Sensors Council, and Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices). His most significant awards include the IEEE Sensors Council Technical Achievement Award, the Gold Medal of the Russian Education Ministry, the Senior Humboldt Research Award, and the IEEE EDS J.J. Ebers Award. Prof. Shur also made outstanding contributions to the MTT-S community, particularly in terahertz technology and microwave sensors.