Alumni Magazine - Winter 2009 - (Page 68)
FACULTY PROFILE Hess Investigates Graphene’s ‘Unimagined Applications’ By Kimberly Link-Wills T he National Science Foundation awarded $8.1 million to Georgia Tech this fall to create the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, focused on the development of graphene and its potential to replace silicon. Dennis Hess, the Thomas C. DeLoach Jr. chair of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was named director of the center, housed in the new Marcus Nanotechnology Research Building. The lab’s research is a cross-disciplinary effort utilizing the talents and resources of Tech as well as those of the University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Riverside; Alabama A&M; and the University of Michigan. Initially, the lab will house research conducted by 13 Tech faculty members and five from the partner institutions. Interim President Gary Schuster says Tech’s graphene research will bring Atlanta a nickname to rival Silicon Valley. “There is the potential that graphene is going to replace all the silicon that’s in your cell phone and computer,” Schuster says. “I’m going to predict that in a few years Atlanta is going to be known as Graphene Junction. That’s where the next generation of technology that is going to be powering up the revolution in electronics is going to occur, and it’s going to occur right here on the Georgia Tech campus.” Hess, who earned his bachelor’s degree at Albright College in 1968 and his master’s and doctorate at Lehigh University in 1970 and ’73, joined the Tech faculty in 1996. Why did you choose a career in academia? I had been interested in a position in academia since enrolling in graduate school but decided that I should gain some industrial experience first. After four years at Fairchild Semiconductor, I accepted a position as an assistant professor in chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, which wanted to initiate a program in microelectronics processing since many of its graduates were joining microelectronics firms in Silicon Valley. This was the first formal program in microelectronics processing in a chemical engineering department. Close interactions with students in courses and research along with the freedom to undertake research directions of my choosing — provided that I can raise the necessary funds — are the reasons that I have remained in academia. I stayed at Berkeley for 14 years until the lure of moving back to the East and closer to family took over. What brought you to Georgia Tech? As I was completing my five years as the chemical engineering department chair at Lehigh University in 1996, I was ready for a change. The year before, the chemical engineering department at Georgia Tech had invited me to give a seminar on my research, and I was very impressed with how the school was progressing. They had hired several excellent senior faculty members I had known for some time — Ron Rousseau, Chuck Eckert and Paul Kohl — and also had hired a number of outstanding young faculty members. This indicated that the chemical engineering department was poised for continued and enhanced success and thus represented a great opportunity. I wanted to be part of this effort since this was clearly a school that was on the move. Briefly explain graphene research. Continued advances in microelectronic devices and integrated circuits and the fundamental limitations of silicon properties have led to the need to find a successor to silicon 68 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Winter 2009
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