An Australian native, A. Richard Newton received received the B.Eng. and M.Eng.Sci degrees from the University of Melbourne, Australia, in 1973 and 1975 respectively and his Ph.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1978. He joined the faculty at Berkeley in 1979 and is currently Dean of the College of Engineering and the Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering at Berkeley.  He is also a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, where he was Chair of the department from 1999-2000. Since 1979 he has been actively involved as a researcher and teacher in the areas of design technology, electronic system architecture, and integrated circuit design.

His current interests include the application of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to the solution of tough societal and quality-of-life problems. In 1999 he led in the founding of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), a California Institute for Science and Innovation dedicated to the application of information and communication technologies to the solution of such tough societal and quality-of-life problems in areas that include energy, the environment, transportation, health care, disaster mitigation and response, and education..

From 1986-1988 he was Vice Chairman for Computing Resources in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. Dr. Newton was an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design for Integrated Circuits from 1984-1988 and a member of the Administrative Committee of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society 1985-1988. Professor Newton has helped with many design technology conferences and workshops over the years and was Technical Program Chair of the 1988 and 1989 ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conferences, Vice Chair of the 1990 Conference and was General Chair of the Conference in 1991.

He has received a number of awards for his teaching and research, including Best Paper Awards at the 1988 European Solid State Circuits Conference, the 1987 and 1989 ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conferences, and the International Conference on Computer Design, and he was selected in 1987 as the national recipient of the C. Holmes McDonald Outstanding Young Professor Award of the Eta-Kappa-Nu Engineering Honor Society. In 1989 he was co-recipient of a Best Paper Award for the IEEE Transactions for Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems. In 2000, Professor Newton was selected as a recipient of the IEEE Golden Jubilee Award for his contributions to Circuits and Systems. In 2003 he was also awarded a Doctorate of Laws, honoris causa, from his alma mater the University of Melbourne, Australia. Professor Newton is an Honorary Professor in Integrated Circuit Design at the National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan and was awarded the 2003 EDAC Phil Kaufman Award. In 2004, Professor Newton was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

From 1998-2002 he served as the founding director of the MARCO/DARPA Gigascale Silicon Research Center (GSRC) for silicon chip design and test. With an annual budget of $9 million in 2002, the GSRC is a major private-public partnership with the US Government and the semiconductor industry that funds and coordinates long-range research at a dozen major US universities and involving many industrial collaborators.

He was a Founding Member of both the EDIF technical and steering committees, an advisor to the CAD Framework Initiative, and was also a Founding Member of EDAC.

In addition to his academic role, Professor Newton has helped to found a number of design technology companies, including SDA Systems (now Cadence Design Systems), PIE Design Systems (now a part of Cadence), Simplex Solutions, Crossbow, and Synopsys, where he rejoined the Board of Directors in 1995. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Tensilica, Inc. and a member of the Technology Council  of ST Microelectronics, as well as the technical advisory boards of Lightspeed Semiconductor, Radiata (now a Cisco company), Sonics, Inc., Airgo Networks, Pharmix and Form Factor. Since 1997, he has been a member of the Technical Advisory Board of the Microsoft Research Laboratories. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.

From 1988-2002, he has acted as a Venture Partner with the Mayfield Fund, a high-technology venture capital partnership, where he has contributed to both the evaluation and early-stage development of over two dozen new companies. He is currently a Venture Partner with Tallwood Venture Capital. From November 1994 to July 1995, Professor Newton was the acting President and CEO of Silicon Light Machines (formerly Echelle, Inc), a development-stage company which is bringing to market a number of display systems based on the application of micromachined silicon light-valves. The company was later acquired by Cypress Semiconductor.

He is a Member of the ACM, a Fellow of the IEEE, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.