For his innovative work on advanced microelectronics, professor Bruce Smith at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) was honored as the 2018 Inventor of the Year by the Rochester Intellectual Property Law Association. Bruce Smith, a professor at RIT and director of its microsystems engineering program, was honored as the 2018 Inventor of the Year by the Rochester Intellectual Property Law Association. Joining Smith at the June 12 ceremony were (from left) Doreen Edwards, dean of the Kate Gleason College of Engineering; Smith; William Bond, director of RIT’s Intellectual Property & Technology Transfer Office; Ali Ogut, RIT professor of mechanical engineering; and David Munson, RIT's president. Courtesy of RIT. To date, Smith has more than 30 U.S. and international patents, and the foundational technologies he's developed are the essential building blocks for electronic devices today. As microelectronic devices have progressed toward ever-shrinking dimensions, advances in patterning technology at the nanometer level have been required. Through innovation in new imaging methods and processes, Smith and his students have been instrumental in the advances in integrated circuit lithography. His many patents in optics, masking, and materials have been licensed worldwide. Smith continues advances in semiconductor nanolithography using methods he and his team introduced pushing the resolution limits that are integral to today's integrated circuits industry. He has advanced semiconductor patterning technology, and his contributions in nanolithography have been detailed in more than 150 publications, textbooks, and several book chapters. "Bruce Smith is an innovator whose work makes a difference," said Doreen Edwards, dean of RIT's Kate Gleason College of Engineering. "We've seen his creativity and drive impact an industry and also influence the many students he has taught. He has been a role model for how you build important technologies that improve people's lives." Smith has developed courses in microelectronic patterning, materials, and processing that have been used as the basis for classes at universities worldwide. Smith has also pioneered unique engineering research experiences for both graduate and undergraduate students. Through support from industrial partners and the Interuniversity Microelectronics Center, he created the RIT/IMEC/Mentor Graphics Graduate Research Experience for extended student assignments with researchers at the IMEC consortium in Belgium. The program has supported Ph.D. students from RIT and elsewhere for more than 15 years, as Smith has held various visiting professor positions in the U.S., U.K., and Europe. At RIT, Smith is part of the Future Photonics Initiative, one of the university's signature research areas.