HESBURGH LECTURE SERIES 2012 Program - Alumni Association ...

James L. Merz, Ph.D., ’59
Frank M. Freimann Professor Emeritus, Electrical Engineering
Biography
James Merz received a B.S. degree in physics from the University of Notre Dame in 1959, and
attended the University of Gottingen, Germany, 1959-1960. He received his M.A. degree
in 1961 and Ph.D. in applied physics in 1967 from Harvard University. Merz joined Bell
Laboratories in 1966 in the basic research division, and in 1978 he moved to the University of
California at Santa Barbara as a professor of electrical engineering. He was appointed chair in
1982, associate dean for research for the College of Engineering from 1984 to 1986, and acting
associate vice chancellor from January to September 1988. Merz was director of the center Engineering, Science
from 1989 and to 1994 when he moved to Notre Dame, where he served as vice president
for Graduate Studies and Research and dean of the Graduate School from 1996 to 2001. He
also served as interim dean of the College of Engineering from July 2006 to January 2008. He has more than 450 publications in
the fields of optical properties and defects in semiconductors, ion implantation, optoelectronic devices, and nanoscience and
technology.
Merz was awarded an honorary doctorate by Linkoping University, Sweden, in 1993. He is a fellow of the APS, IEEE, MRS, and
AAAS. He was awarded the IEEE Third Millennium Medal in 2000, and received an Alexander von Humboldt Award to carry out
research in Germany in 2002. He served for five years as secretary of the Electron Device Society of the IEEE, and a member of
its executive committee, and resumed those duties in December 2007. Currently he is a member of the board of directors of the
Tyndall National Institute in Cork, Ireland.
Lecture
Categories
The Descent from Flatland into the World of Lower Dimensions
Flatland, Edwin A. Abbott’s marvelous little book has, for over a century, brought both humor and insight into our thinking about
a mythical land of two dimensions. This lecture explores at an elementary level the fascinating and counter-intuitive behavior of
particles in real structures of two, one, and zero dimensions that are central to today’s miracles of nanotechnology.
The Hesburgh Lecture Series, 2012 Program 71