Scientist, Great Friend, Chemist, Generous, Professor, Youthful, Author, High-spirited, Mother to All, Engineer, Warm hearted, Mentor and Student Champion, Fun, Matriarch and A Lady. There are not enough words to properly describe all the fine attributes and talents that make up Dr. Laura Turbini. The individuals in this room are dedicated chapter officers, Board directors, staff, speakers, members and SMTA supporters honoring one of our own greatest contributors.

Dr. Laura, no, the other Dr. Laura, holds a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Cornell University and is the Chemistry Lab Manager and Principal Scientist at Research in Motion. She is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Waterloo. She was previously the Executive Director of the Centre for Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging (CMAP) and has been involved in the electronics industry for over 30 years. Her career includes research and engineering management within Lucent Technology, Bell Labs and AT&T. Dr. Turbini spent 10 years at Georgia Tech with her last position as Professor of Materials Science and Engineering.

She has served on the SMTA Board of Directors on the Planning Committee a nd has chaired or served on other committees such Hutchins Grant, Nominating,25 th anniversary, Journal and Technical. She initiated the first International Conference on Soldering and Reliability back in 2007 and has chaired the conference ever since.

For SMTA International since 2000, she has authored and presented numerous papers and chaired many technical sessions.

Laura’s favorite cause is her heart and soul towards the next and upcoming generations of young people. Laura is a champion for students in every possible way connecting them to SMTA and the industry through mentoring, developing student chapters, arranging company tours and internships, co-authoring papers, arranging funding for student sponsorship to our conferences and much more! One of my favorite memories with Laura is one SMTA international dinner, where she went around collecting Pirate hats, plastic swords, other trinkets, from the other attendees, sometimes taking these right off their persons so that she could bring these items back for her students. Anything for the students.

I am very proud and honored to present the Founders Award to my very good friend, Dr. Laura Turbini.