Named in memory of the late Jerry R. Junkins, former chief executive officer of Texas Instruments and SMU trustee, the 50,000-square-foot Jerry R. Junkins Engineering Building opened in 2002 as the home of the Electrical Engineering Department.

Two gifts totaling $5 million from the TI Foundation and the family of Jerry Junkins, and additional gifts in honor of Mr. Junkins, helped complete funding for construction of the new building. Other principal donors include James Lindsay Embrey and Bobbie Embrey, and the estate of Hugo R. Kamb.

Classrooms and lecture halls are located on the first floor and the third floor provides office space for faculty and students. The ground floor and second floor house a variety of teaching and research labs for work in the fields of digital signal processing, optoelectronics, microelectronics and biomedical research labs and wireless communications and networking. Additionally, it is home to one of the largest clean rooms on a university campus.

Jerry Junkins was chairman, president and chief executive officer of TI at the time of his death in 1996. His involvement in SMU's engineering school dates back to the 1960s. He earned a Master of Science degree in engineering management from SMU in 1968 and later played an important role in the engineering school's revitalization. He served as vice chair of the school's Executive Board and led a task force that examined the school's impact on Dallas industries. He was a member of the SMU Board of Trustees from 1990 until his death.

The Junkins Building was designed by Hahnfeld Associates of Fort Worth in association with Ellerbe Beckett of Minneapolis.