Born on April 15, 1931 in Magetan, Indonesia, Prof. Samadikun graduated from Stanford University with an MSc (1957), and PhD (1971) in Electrical Engineering. He also obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Nuclear Engineering from Queen Mary College, London University (1960).

He started out as a lecturer at the Electrical Engineering Department, Bandung Institute of Technology Bandung, Indonesia (1957), and became Professor of Electronics in 1974. While at the university, he was appointed Chairman of the Electrical Engineering Department (1964-1967), and the first Director of the Inter-University Center for Microelectronics (1984-1989).

He is currently a senior researcher at the centre.

He is the author and co-author of a number of national and international publications
on Electronics and Nuclear Instrumentation.

Prof. Samaun Samadikun took sabbatical leave from the university to take up appointment within the central government; as Director General of Energy, Ministry of Mining and Energy (1978-1983), and as Chairman of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) (1989-1995).

Prof. Samadikun is a Member of Indonesia Engineers Association, the association that awarded him the Adhikara Rekayasa Award in 1984. He was also awarded the National Scientific Citation Medal (1978), and the Mahaputra Utama Medal (1995) by the Government of Indonesia. He was also honored with the 1998 Award of the Association of South Eastern Asian Nations (ASEAN), in recognition of his meritorious service to science and technology.