Rinaldo Castello: Berkeley Roots

When asked to write this article about Rinaldo Castello, I found myself reflecting on my own years at UC Berkeley, particularly when I first arrived in the early 1990s. As someone who grew up in Michigan, then attended the University of Michigan for my undergraduate degree, it was certainly a dream of mine to go to graduate school at a place like UC Berkeley. Initially, I was amazed by the faculty, all of them engineering luminaries. I have vivid memories of my first few days on campus, particularly the first time I walked down the corridor of faculty offices on the 5th floor of Cory Hall, awestruck by the names on each door I passed. Every few feet I would say to myself, ?Yep, I used his textbook?.yes, read his book?.oh, I?ve seen several of his papers.? However, after working a few months in Paul Gray?s research group (where, like Rinaldo, I was fortunate to find a place to hang my hat during my first year of graduate school), I soon realized that the uniqueness of Berkeley?s culture and excellence in IC research really lies as much, if not more, with the graduate students as it does with faculty. The leadership, the transfer of technical knowhow, and the breading of a creative environment was really attributed to the students that surrounded us. With every successive generation of graduate students, there always seems to be one student who stands out and leaves a lasting impression. Although Rinaldo was long gone by the time I came to Berkeley, stories of his leadership and technical excellence still abounded; so much so, that before I met him for the first time, I almost had a larger than life image of this person who embodied the ethos of a collaborative research group and had gone on to do so many great things in the IC design community. I met Rinaldo early on during my graduate studies at Berkeley and not only did he live up to the image, but he also became a great friend, from whom I have received so much technical advice and career guidance through the years, as do many former and current EECS graduate students from UC Berkeley.