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Curtis Priem

Curtis Priem
Born
Curtis R. Priem

1958 or 1959 (age 65–66)
Alma materRensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Known forCo-founding Nvidia
Scientific career
FieldsElectrical engineering
InstitutionsIBM
Sun Microsystems
Nvidia

Curtis R. Priem (born 1958 or 1959[1]) is an American electrical engineer.

Career

He received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1982.[2] He designed the first graphics processor for the PC, the IBM Professional Graphics Adapter.

From 1986 to 1993, he was a senior staff engineer at Sun Microsystems, where he developed the GX graphics chip.

He co-founded Nvidia with Jen-Hsun Huang and Chris Malachowsky and was its chief technical officer from 1993 to 2003. He retired from Nvidia in 2003.

In 2000, Priem was named Entrepreneur of the Year.[3] From 2003 to 2007 he was a trustee of Rensselaer.[4] In 2004 he announced that he would donate an unrestricted gift of $40 million to the Institute. Rensselaer subsequently created the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, named in his honor and usually referred to as "EMPAC" for short.[5]

He is also president of the Priem Family Foundation, which he established with his wife Veronica in September, 1999. The foundation is non-operating (i.e., has no office or staff, and therefore, no overhead) and exists only to give money to other foundations or charities.

References