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

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

Career

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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

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  1. ^ Liu, Phoebe (November 26, 2023). "This Nvidia Cofounder Could Have Been Worth $70 Billion. Instead He Lives Off The Grid". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 27, 2023.
  2. ^ "Curtis R. Priem". Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
  3. ^ Curtis Priem '82 Named Entrepreneur of the Year December 2000. Archived June 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Rensselaer Trustees Archived 2009-05-17 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ 09.11.04 Rensselaer Announces $1 Billion Capital Campaign — the Largest in the University's History September 2004. Archived October 14, 2010, at the Wayback Machine