UCLA Engineering Professor M.C. Frank Chang Receives John Fritz Medal for Chip Innovations
Courtesy of Frank Chang
UCLA Samueli Newsroom
Mau-Chung Frank Chang, a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and holder of the Wintek Chair in Electrical Engineering, was awarded the John Fritz Medal Tuesday at the 2026 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco.
The annual award recognizes major scientific or industrial achievement in any field of pure or applied science. Chang was honored for “pioneering contributions and innovations in the development of heterojunction technology and system-on-chip technologies with unprecedented functionality, bandwidth and re-configurability.”
Since 1997, Chang has led the High Speed Electronics Lab at UCLA, which focuses on integrated circuits for high-frequency system-on-chip applications. Before joining UCLA, Chang led research and development of integrated-circuit technologies at Rockwell International.
ISSCC
The 2025 John Fritz Medal is awarded to Frank Chang (center), pictured with his wife, Shelly Chang, and 2025 IEEE-USA President Timothy Lee.
Chang is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, an eminent member of the IEEE Eta Kappa Nu honor society, an IEEE Life Fellow, and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and Academia Sinica. He also received the 2023 IEEE/Royal Society of Edinburgh James Clerk Maxwell Award.
Established in 1902 by the American Association of Engineering Societies, the medal was created in honor of John Fritz, an American engineer, inventor and foundational figure in the 19th-century iron and steel industry. Following the dissolution of AAES in 2020, the administration of the Fritz Medal was transferred to the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, and is currently coordinated by the Society of Mining, Metallurgy, & Exploration.
Notable past recipients include Thomas Edison, physicist Lord Kelvin, telephone innovator Alexander Graham Bell, flight pioneer Orville Wright, Elon Musk, and semiconductor giants Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore. UCLA Samueli distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering Asad Madni received the award in 2023.