Biography

Joseph Heremans received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering (1975) and his Ph. D. in Applied Physics (1978) from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. With a fellowship of the Belgian National Science Foundation, he was a visiting scientist at the Ørsted Institute (University of Copenhagen), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Institute for Solid State Physics (University of Tokyo). He joined General Motors Research Laboratories in 1984, became group leader of the Electro-optical Physics Group (1985), and manager of the Semiconductor Physics Section (1987). He moved to Delphi Corporation’s Research Labs in 1999, where he is a Research Fellow and manages the nanomaterials group. Joseph co-edited two books, and authored 162 peer-reviewed articles and 31 US patents. He is a fellow of the APS (1987), received GM’s Kettering and Campbell Awards, and Delphi’s Scientific Excellence Award. His current research interests are the transport properties of nan omaterials and energy conversion.

Statement

In the APS, the Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics provides the critical interface between universities, national laboratories and industrial laboratories, which I will strive to nurture and strengthen. FIAP has been quite successful in recognizing the contributions of physicists in non-academic positions, for instance through the fellowship program. Another strength is the organization of focus sessions at the March Meeting, which inform the broader community of physicists about the existence of problems with technological significance. Maintaining the high quality of both programs is my first goal. I see new opportunities in trying to increase the participation of physicists employed in industry, particularly those outside the established industrial labs. Finally, I want to promote relationships between academia and industrial/national laboratories at the graduate student level, in order to increase the awareness of younger members of the career opportunities that are open to them.