James J. Truchard

Former CEO · NI · company speakers →

Dr. James Truchard completed his education at The University of Texas at Austin. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics in 1964 and 1967, respectively; and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1974. While pursuing his Ph.D., Dr. Truchard worked full time as a research scientist at the Applied Research Laboratory at UT Austin, where he pioneered technologies for computer-based systems for testing the U.S. Navy’s sonar transducers and sonar beamformers. Computer-based test measurement systems became Dr. Truchard’s vision for National Instruments, a company he co-founded in 1976. Starting with computer interfaces for traditional instruments, he went on to create data acquisition products interfaced directly to computers. Dr. Truchard co-invented LabVIEW, a graphical programming language that revolutionized how tests and measurements are performed in engineering and science experiments for a wide range of industries. National Instruments went on to create a suite of products and now works with over 35,000 companies and 7,000 universities. On January 1, 2017, Dr. Truchard retired after 40 years as CEO of the company, now known as NI. Dr. Truchard has actively supported the next generation of engineers through programs such as FIRST® and hands-on learning labs. Since retiring from NI in 2017 he has spent his time sponsoring a number of humanitarian causes, including working with top researchers to help find the cause of Alzheimer’s Disease. Dr. Truchard set-up the Oskar Fischer Prize in 2019 to incentivize Alzheimer’s researchers to take an engineering approach to Alzheimer’s Disease. He believes through out-of-the-box thinking and cross-referencing key factors the answer to this devastating affliction can be achieved. He is also currently sponsoring a study with the National Academies on clean, safe, and affordable nuclear power. Among his various honors, Dr. Truchard was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2007, named an IEEE Fellow in 2015 and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2019.

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