PULLMAN, Wash. — An entrepreneur, innovator and holder of nine patents in
the semiconductor field has received Washington State University’s Alumni
Achievement Award.
George Antypas of Los Altos, Calif., was cited for “his extensive volunteer
service to his community and WSU, and for bringing recognition to his alma
mater through his profession.” The award was presented May 20 in Mountain
View, Calif., at a gathering of friends.
Antypas has been the sole president and CEO of Crystacomm, a company he
founded in 1980 in Mountain View. His company has always been on the
leading edge of semiconductor material development for a highly specialized
market.
As the only U.S. supplier of indium phosphide wafers, he has helped fulfill a
need for this material in a number of high-tech industries. He also has
contributed to one of the few textbooks on indium phosphide processing.
The native of Salonica, Greece, earned three WSU degrees in electrical
engineering — a bachelor’s (1963), a master’s (1964) and a doctorate (1967).
He was a member of the student chapter of the Institute of Electrical and
Electronic Engineers and in 1992 was named a Fellow by the IEEE. The IEEE
has a membership of nearly 300,000, but only two percent are selected to be
Fellows.
Before starting his own company, he worked in corporate research laboratories
at Varian Associates in Palo Alto.
Antypas served on the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Advisory Council in 1997-98, has hosted WSU engineering and architecture
alumni events, was a contributing writer for the college’s publication Beyond
Commencement, and is supportive of WSU women’s athletics.
In his community, he has been a board member of the Mountain View/Los
Altos Foundation, which supports secondary schools, and a board member of
the Los Altos Education Foundation.
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