Abstract :
Summary form only given, as follows. Richard was also a strong supporter of the Design Automation Conference (DAC); he was the Chair of the conference in 1991, and gave a keynote address in 1995. He participated and chaired a half-dozen panels, and authored over 25 technical papers. His first paper appeared in the 1982 proceedings, and his research will continue to be used as a reference for many years to come. However, Richard´s impact on DAC can not be so simply quantified. He was a leader and inspiration to everyone who participated in the conference for many years. And, he was instrumental in establishing and growing the essential relationship between the academic and industrial participants that make DAC a unique conference. As a community we are recognizing Richard´s contributions and legacy in different ways. The Electronic Design Automation Consortium with friends and colleagues of Richard´s have set up and funded an endowed professor chair at the Univ. of California, Berkeley. IEEE-CEDA together with ACM SIGDA have plans to award the A. Richard Newton Technical Impact Award in Electronic Design Automation to honor a person or persons for an outstanding technical contribution within the scope of electronic design automation. The DAC Executive Committee has also chosen to name our existing DAC Graduate Scholarships after Richard Newton. We feel that supporting young faculty and graduate research is an appropriate way to honor his vision and carry out some of his goals. For those young researchers who did not have the pleasure of knowing Richard personally, and are curious to learn about his work, they need look no further than the proceedings of the conference he helped shape to be inspired by the depth and breadth of his contributions to our field.
