Dr. Lubomyr T. Romankiw

Born in Zhovkva, Ukraine, he is a 1986 IBM Fellow and researcher at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. In a ceremony on May 2, 2012, he was one of two IBM scientists inducted into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame for their invention that paved the way for the advancement of commercial disk storage technology used in computers, digital cameras and other devices. He and Dr. David Thompson (retired) were honored for their invention of a technique that produced the first practical and manufacturable thin film magnetic head, which increased the density of data stored on magnetic disks and dramatically reduced the cost of data storage. He was one of ten inventors (including Steve Jobs) so honored. This invention (U.S. Patent #4,295,173) along with two other patented inventions (#3,921,217 and #3,908,194) and a new through mask electroplating process and tools, enabled an industry estimated to generate more than $35 billion in annual sales. It also has facilitated very small and sensitive magnetic disk storage devices able to store increasingly greater amounts of information. Today, a disk drive in a typical desktop computer can store up to 400 gigabytes (or 400 billion bytes) of data. He earned his B.S. from the University of Alberta in 1957, and both his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Metallurgy and Materials from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962. He is listed as a co-inventor on over 65 U.S. patents, 150 papers and has edited 10 volumes of various technical symposia. Much of his work involves magnetic materials, reflective displays and copper plating. In addition to being named an IBM Fellow, he is a member of the IBM Academy of Technology, an IEEE Fellow, and an Electrochemical Society Fellow. He received the 1993 Society of Chemical Industry Perkin Medal, the 1994 IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Technical Field Award, and the 1994 Electrochemical Society Vittorio de Nora Award. He also received the Inventor of the Year Award from the Eastern New York Intellectual Property Law Association (2000 and the Inventor of the Year Award from the New York Intellectual Property Law Association (2001). He holds over 65 patents and has published over 150 scientific papers. He is active in various organizations, most notably serving as the Nachalniy Plastun (or Chief Scout) of the Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization, and he is a member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, USA.