Phil Hoppes
Phil Hoppes resides in Phoenix, Arizona. He graduated from Purdue University in 1976 with a BSEE degree. He and his wife Lynn moved from West Lafayette, Indiana to Phoenix after his graduation. He received a MSEE from Arizona State University in 1983. He has worked as a IC designer and design manager in the high tech industry for about 28 years. Over that period of time he’s worked on various projects. His initial employment was with the Motorola Government Electronics group. While working there he helped develop custom radiation hardened CMOS devices that were part of the NASA Standard Transponder and NASA TDRSS Standard Transponder. He has designs still flying today on the Hubble Telescope. He also worked on various secure communication projects for a number of those three letter organizations of the government. In 1986 he moved on to the commercial electronics working for VLSI Technology Inc. While at VLSI he lead a team of engineers who produced the most successful 3rd party ASIC chipsets for manufacturing IBM compatible PC’s. After VLSI there were a number of other semiconductor companies located in the Phoenix area working in computer and telecommunications. He left engineering in 2003 and started a fused glass studio, Enfusiasm and a 2D/3D animation studio, Phil FX. He has worked freelance as an animator and has produced an number of projects for local video production companies and professional astronomical observatories.
His interests are wide and varied from engineering and astronomy to glass art, teaching and animation. He’s a husband, father and grandfather to a wonderful and loving family. When he’s not being a geek, he’s out cycling, walking and doing things with the family.