Meet George Kren

The Kren Engineering-based Medicine Initiative (KEMi) is made possible by the generous support of George and Martine Kren of Monterey, CA. George’s journey reflects the transformative power of bold ideas, enduring partnerships, the drive to push boundaries, and the pursuit for lasting impact. These are the foundational elements of KEMi’s mission, fostering innovation at the intersection of engineering and medicine.

George Kren was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) in 1936 and obtained his Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Czech Institute of Technology. He joined the National Research Institute for Materials in the Material Inspection Division and filed more than a dozen patents in electro-magnetic methods for material inspection, and metrology. He became an active member of The American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT).

In 1970, George visited the United States, where he held research positions at the Retina Foundation in Boston, and at Randex in Palo Alto. In 1972 he returned to Prague and began a PhD program under Professor Raclavsky at the University of Brno. His PhD focused on "Detection of Extremely Low Magnetic Fields.” A year later George married his wife Martina and they decided to emigrate to the U.S., interrupting his PhD program. After arriving in California, George had to choose between academia and industry. eventually deciding for the latter, and in 1976 he co-founded Tencor Instruments, a company which later merged with KLA to form KLA-Tencor.

George was instrumental at Tencor in developing laser scanning technology for detecting sub-micron defects on silicon wafers and this resulted in the Surfscan range of products which became the standard in the semiconductor industry. Today these products and their derivatives have fueled a multi-billion dollar business which is key to enabling and advancing semiconductor technology.

For many years George had a leading role in SEMI Standards and he became a recipient of the SEMI Lifetime Award in 2004. After a career of almost 40 years in Inspection and Metrology, George semi-retired and joined a small company named DCG in the position of an adviser to the CEO for 18 months. George is now fully retired and resides with his wife Martina in Monterey, California. They have a daughter, Madeleine, who lives in Columbus, Ohio.

In 2020, George was referred by a friend to the UW Medicine Eye Institute, and he was impressed by his experience as a UW Medicine patient. His keen interest in optics and vision research led him to being invited by UW's Department of Ophthalmology to become a member of the Department's Community Action Board (CAB). After funding an endowed chair and a professorship, together with donations to other projects in Ophthalmology, George expanded his vision and, together with Martina, established the Kren Engineering-based Medicine Program with a substantial donation to the University.

This generous gift will promote improved collaboration between the UW College of Engineering and School of Medicine and will act as a catalyst to advance technology and innovation to transform the practice of medicine and healthcare.