Dr. Hou received his B.S. and M.S. in electronics engineering from National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan in 1996 and 1998, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Cornell University in 2008. In 2000, he joined the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). From 2001 to 2003, he was also a TSMC assignee at International SEMATECH, Austin, TX. In 2008, he joined the Department of Electronics Engineering, National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) (as National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) since 2021), where he is currently a Chair Professor. Dr. Hou is also the Program Director of Angstrom Semiconductor Initiative, one of the largest national research programs for advanced semiconductors. In 2022, Dr. Hou became the Director General of Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute (TSRI), one of the National Applied Research Laboratories in Taiwan focusing on semiconductor technology. He was the Associate Vice President for Research & Development at NYCU, the Director of EECS International Graduate Program, and the Deputy Director of Microelectronics and Information Research Center at NCTU. He was also the R&D Director of the Electronic and Optoelectronic System Research Lab at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). His research interests include the emerging nonvolatile memory for embedded and high-density data storage, electronic synaptic device and neuromorphic computing systems, and heterogeneous integration of silicon electronics with low-dimensional and low-temperature nanomaterials.

Dr. Hou has published more than 250 technical papers with citations>6400 and H-index 42, delivered more than 30 invited conference talks, and held 23 U.S. patents. He was also a recipient of the IEEE Electron Device Society (EDS) Ph.D. student fellowship, EDMA Outstanding Youth Award, CIEE Outstanding Electrical Engineering Professor Award, Micron Teacher Award, MOST Ta-You Wu Memorial Award, and MOST Outstanding Research Award (twice). He served on the technical program committees of major conferences, including VLSI, IEDM, IRPS, DRC, EDTM, ISCAS, etc. He is currently the Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports, Associate Editor of IEEE Access, and Regional Editor of IEEE EDS Newsletter. He is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the IEEE Taipei Section and Advisor of the IEEE EDS NCTU student branch chapter.