Chris Van de Walle

Professional Experience

Ph. D. E. E., Stanford University , 1986.
Postdoctoral Scientist, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York (1986-1988).
Senior Member of Research Staff, Philips Laboratories, Briarcliff Manor, New York (1988-1991).
Adjunct Professor, Columbia University, New York (1991).
Principal Scientist/Senior Member/Member of Research Staff, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center ( PARC ), Palo Alto, California (1991- 2004 ).
Alexander von Humboldt US Senior Scientist at the Fritz-Haber- Institut and the Paul- Drude - Institut, Berlin, Germany (May-October 1999).
Professor, Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara (2004 -).
Herbert Kroemer Chair in Materials Science, University of California, Santa Barbara (2013 -).
Distinguished Professor, Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara (2015 -).

Honors

Materials Theory Award, Materials Research Society, 2023
Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow, 2022
Elected to the National Academy of Engineering, 2016
Bardeen Award , TMS, 2015
Medard W. Welch Award , AVS, 2013
David Adler Award , American Physical Society, 2002
PARC Excellence Award, 2003
PARC Golden Acorn Award, 2002
Humboldt Research Award for Senior US Scientist, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany, 1998
Fellow of the American Physical Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Materials Research Society, AVS.

Professional Activities

APS Division of Computational Physics: Vice-Chair, 2015-2016; Chair-Elect, 2016-2017; Chair, 2017-2018.
Member of the Editorial Board, Physical Review Letters, 1996-1999
Associate Editor, Journal of Electronic Materials, 2011-2014.
IUPAP C8 Commission on Semiconductors, Vice-chair, 2005-2008; Member, 2008-2011
US National Liaison Committee, National Research Council, 2005-2011
Scientific Advisory Board, Paul Drude Institute, Berlin, Germany, 2002-2009
Solid State Sciences Committee, Board on Physics and Astronomy, National Academies, 2003-2006

Publications and Presentations

Over 570 scientific publications.
Publication list (Google Scholar, ORCID).
24 U.S. patents; several patents pending.
Over 250 Invited and Plenary Presentations at International Conferences and Schools. Numerous invited seminars at universities and industrial or government laboratories.
Web of Science [May 2024]: h index: 113, Over 59,600 citations.  11 publications with over 1000 citations, 124 publications with over 100 citations.
Included in the 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 “Highly Cited Researchers” lists.

Research Interests

Computational physics. Density-functional theory, pseudopotentials.  Atomic and electronic structure of crystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous materials, interfaces, surfaces, defects.
Quantum defects, quantum emitters, materials for quantum technologies.
Radiative and nonradiative recombination mechanisms.
Novel electronic materials; wide-band-gap semiconductors; oxides; two-dimensional materials; ferroelectrics.
Physics and chemistry of hydrogen interactions with solids, liquids, and molecular systems.  Hydrogen generation and storage.
Semiconductor heterojunctions and superlattices; effects of strain; deformation potentials.  Metal-semiconductor interfaces, Schottky barriers.
Defects and impurities in solids, doping, diffusion.  Hyperfine parameters, vibrational modes. 
Device simulations; optical gain in laser structures; loss mechanisms in light emitters.