Eli Harari *73, a Princeton engineering Ph.D. and computer-hardware pioneer, will receive the 2014 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the White House announced Oct. 3. Harari is one of 19 honorees in the fields of science and technology who will be honored by President Barack Obama later this year.
Harari’s idea for “system flash” memory sparked the creation of SanDisk, a Milpitas, Calif.-based company that began with three employees and now has more than 5,000. SanDisk technology is used in thousands of devices, from memory cards and USB drives to mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. “We’re now connected in ways that would not be possible without the technologies that Eli helped pioneer,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, SanDisk’s co-founder, president, and CEO, in a news release.
Fellow graduate alumnus Arthur Levinson *77, a former CEO of Genentech and Princeton’s 2006 James Madison Medal recipient, also will receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Levinson was our Tiger of the Week three years ago when he took over as the non-executive chairman of Apple following the death of Steve Jobs. He currently heads Calico, a research and development company in California, and works with former Princeton professor David Botstein, Calico’s chief scientific officer.