Synopsys Founder Aart de Geus to Receive the Chip Industry's Prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has announced that Aart de Geus, founder and executive chair of Synopsys, will receive the prestigious Robert N. Noyce Award in 2024.

The Noyce Award, named in honor of Intel’s co-founder Robert N. Noyce, is presented annually to a leader who has made significant contributions to the semiconductor industry, spanning technology and public policy.

The award ceremony will be held at the SIA Awards Dinner on November 21, 2024, in San Jose, California.

“A universally respected leader and visionary, Aart pioneered revolutionary electronic design automation (EDA) technology, crucial for chip design,” stated John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. “With a career spanning over four decades, Aart has significantly impacted our industry and championed our priorities. We are excited to honor him with the 2024 Robert N. Noyce Award for his groundbreaking achievements.”

Since its inception in the 1980s, Synopsys has dramatically increased in value. In 2023, the company announced its intention to acquire Ansys for $35 billion.

Aart de Geus began his career in 1982 at General Electric, where he developed essential design and verification tools for semiconductors. He founded Synopsys in 1986, focusing on logic synthesis, which automates the creation of digital designs from language descriptions.

This innovation marked the transition from computer-aided design (CAD) to the electronic design automation (EDA) era, facilitating the exponential growth of digital complexity associated with Moore’s Law. This principle, proposed by former Intel leader Gordon Moore, states that chips double their component count approximately every two years, establishing a benchmark for relentless technological advancement.

De Geus served as CEO of Synopsys from 1994 to 2024. His pioneering work has earned him numerous accolades, including Electronic Business Magazine’s “CEO of the Year” (2002), IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal (2007), and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s “Spirit of the Valley” Lifetime Achievement Award (2007), among others.

Currently, de Geus is the executive chair of Synopsys’ board of directors, actively overseeing business operations. He serves on the boards of Applied Materials, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG), the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), and the Electronic System Design Alliance (ESDA). He is also a member of the US National Academy of Engineering.

In 1999, he founded the Synopsys Outreach Foundation, aimed at promoting project-based science and math education in Silicon Valley, anticipating the future engineering workforce shortage in high-tech industries. For over 35 years, Synopsys has championed community engagement initiatives in its global locations.

De Geus holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

“Receiving the 2024 Noyce Award is a tremendous honor,” de Geus remarked. “Reflecting on the shift from CAD to EDA, it was a significant turning point that led to an approximately 10 million-fold increase in digital design productivity.”

He further noted, “With the rise of 3D multi-die integration, semiconductor technology is evolving from scale to systemic complexity. Driven by AI demand economics and innovative AI-powered design flows, we are entering a new exponential era. It’s invigorating to witness the vast opportunities around us and to be part of the creativity that continually turns the impossible into reality.”

Past recipients of the Noyce Award include notable leaders such as Sanjay Mehrotra of Micron Technology (2023), Lip-Bu Tan of Cadence Design Systems (2022), and Jensen Huang of Nvidia (2021).