SANTA CLARA, CA – May 01, 2026 – The Asian American Engineer of the Year (AAEOY) Award Executive Committee has unveiled the primary wave of its 2025-2026 awardees, recognizing a distinguished group of leaders whose work is shaping the way forward for know-how, science, and sustainability. Headlining the announcement are Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who will obtain the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award, and Dr. Arun Majumdar, the inaugural Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, who’s honored with the Distinguished Leadership in Science and Technology Award.
The announcement precedes the annual AAEOY Award and Conference, a premier occasion that may return to Silicon Valley on September 18-19, 2026, on the Santa Clara Convention Center. The gathering celebrates the profound contributions of Asian American professionals throughout trade, academia, and public service.
A Legacy of Excellence and Inspiration
Founded in 2002 as a cornerstone of National Engineers Week, the AAEOY Award has develop into a venerable establishment. For over twenty years, it has served as a beacon of inspiration for the worldwide STEM group, honoring greater than 300 professionals. The roster of previous honorees contains 9 Nobel Laureates, an astronaut, pioneering teachers, and outstanding company executives, underscoring the award’s status and the caliber of expertise it acknowledges.
The award program is a flagship initiative of the Chinese Institute of Engineers in USA (CIE-USA), a nonprofit skilled group with a wealthy historical past stretching again to 1917. As one of many oldest and most revered Chinese American engineering associations, CIE-USA has lengthy been devoted to selling STEM fields, supporting management growth, and celebrating the achievements of Asian American professionals by its seven regional chapters nationwide.
Honoring a Lifetime of Transformative Leadership
The Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Lip-Bu Tan acknowledges a profession marked by visionary management and transformative influence. Appointed CEO of Intel Corporation in March 2025, Tan is steering the semiconductor big by a essential transformation. His technique features a vital deal with increasing Intel’s foundry companies to fabricate chips for different corporations, a pivotal shift for the enduring agency.
Under his management, Intel has demonstrated what trade analysts name “continued and steady progress,” notably in its information heart enterprise, which has benefited from surging demand for synthetic intelligence. Since his appointment, the corporate’s inventory has appreciated by roughly 80%, reflecting renewed investor confidence. Before taking the helm at Intel, Tan served for 12 years as CEO of Cadence Design Systems, the place he orchestrated a significant firm reinvention that doubled its income. A famend enterprise capitalist, he additionally serves as chairman of Walden International. His intensive contributions to the semiconductor trade had been beforehand acknowledged with the 2022 Robert N. Noyce Award, the Semiconductor Industry Association’s highest honor.
Pioneering a Sustainable Future
Dr. Arun Majumdar’s choice for the Distinguished Leadership in Science and Technology Award highlights his distinctive contributions on the intersection of vitality, local weather science, and coverage. As the inaugural Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, he’s on the forefront of educational efforts to handle the world’s most urgent environmental challenges.
Dr. Majumdar’s profession uniquely spans academia, authorities, and the personal sector. He was appointed by President Obama because the founding Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), the place he established a brand new mannequin for high-impact vitality know-how innovation. He additionally served as Acting Under Secretary of Energy and was Vice President for Energy at Google. At Stanford, his analysis explores sustainable vitality methods and the usage of AI for local weather options. He is a vocal advocate for collaboration between academia and trade—together with fossil-fuel corporations dedicated to alter—to sort out local weather change at a “gigaton-scale.”
A Spectrum of Industry Leadership
The AAEOY awards have a good time excellence throughout the complete know-how ecosystem. The 2025-2026 Executive of the Year awards acknowledge a slate of influential leaders from essential international industries:
- Dr. Xiaodong Che, Chief Technology Officer, Western Digital
- Dr. Sam Heidari, CEO, Lumotive
- Dr. Jungwon Lee, Corporate Executive Vice President, Samsung Electronics
- Dr. Liu Ren, Vice President & Chief Scientist, Bosch Research
- Mr. Brandon Wang, Vice President, Synopsys
These executives characterize management in important fields starting from information storage and autonomous automobile sensors to international client electronics, company analysis, and the foundational software program that powers chip design. The Engineer of the Year award was introduced to Ms. Vivian Ye, Principal Member of Technical Staff at AT&T, honoring her vital technical contributions throughout the telecommunications sector.
Cultivating the Next Generation of Innovators
Showcasing the pipeline of expertise, the Most Promising Engineer of the Year Award identifies rising stars poised to develop into future leaders. This yr’s recipients are Mr. Max Fang, Director of Architecture at Ambarella, an organization specializing in AI imaginative and prescient processors, and Mr. Johnny Ho, CSO & Co-founder of the quickly rising startup Perplexity AI.
Ho’s recognition underscores the explosive development and significance of synthetic intelligence. His position as a co-founder of a key AI firm and his choice as a featured speaker on the upcoming AAEOY convention spotlight the award’s deal with innovators on the slicing fringe of know-how. This class bridges the hole between established titans and rising visionaries, illustrating the continual circulate of innovation throughout the Asian American STEM group.
The return of the AAEOY Award and Conference to Silicon Valley signifies a homecoming to the worldwide hub of know-how. The two-day occasion in September 2026 guarantees a complete program, together with technical excursions, firm recruiting occasions, a VIP networking reception, and a gala banquet to formally honor the awardees. It stands as an important platform for celebrating present achievements whereas inspiring the subsequent technology of engineers and scientists who will proceed to push the boundaries of what’s doable.