SILER CITY — The silicon carbide chip manufacturer Wolfspeed announced Monday it will officially name its new Siler City facility after co-founder John Palmour. Palmour passed away at age 62 in November.
The full name of the incoming facility is the John Palmour Manufacturing Center for Silicon Carbide. The 445-acre manufacturing plant will be housed at the Chatham Advanced Manufacturing site. It is expected to bring in more than $5 billion and 1,800 jobs to the county over the next two decades, and is the largest economic development deal in state history.
Palmour authored or co-authored more than 266 publications and was a co-inventor on 46 U.S. patents and 135 corresponding foreign patents. In 2013, he was named an IEEE Fellow. He played an active role in driving research collaborations with N.C. State engineering faculty and students and created a scholarship endowment in the MSE Department at N.C. State in honor of his father, a longtime N.C. State ceramic engineering professor. Palmour was also elected as a member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering.
“The contributions John made to science and our world are immeasurable and will be felt for generations to come,” Wolfspeed officials said in a statement after his passing.