AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su last Friday joined an exclusive list of personalities whose contributions to he semiconductor industry have been deemed relevant enough to receive the prestigious Robert N. Noyce medal. The award, attributed by the IEEE and funded by Intel, was awarded to Lisa Su in recognition of her "leadership in groundbreaking semiconductor products and successful business strategies that contributed to the strength of the microelectronics industry." Her current and past actions at AMD have pulled most of the weight behind this recognition, as Dr. Lisa Su has completely turned around a company that was bleeding talent and dollars, reversing its 2$ per share lows from AMD's 2014 up to today's $110 per share.

Lisa Su divides her carrier in two parts: the first ten to 15 years where she moved and produced as an MIT-trained electrical engineer, where she earned bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees on the subject. The move towards management of research and technological teams actually happened during her stint in IBM; after 11 years at the company, in 2006 she was appointed vice president of IBM's semiconductor research and development center in New York. She then moved on to AMD as senior vice president in charge of the company's global business units, where she was so impressively skilled it only took her two years to become President and CEO of AMD. Her nomination for the Robert N. Noyce Medal paints her as the first woman to have ever received it. In 1993, MIT female graduates where 32% of the total; in 2016, that number increased to 50%."To be honest, I would have never imagined that I would receive the Noyce award," Lisa Su, who is an IEEE Fellow, says. "It's an honor of a lifetime. To have that recognition from my peers in the technical community is a humbling experience. But I love what I do and being able to contribute to the semiconductor industry."