| David E. Aspnes | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 May 1939 Madison, WI, United States |
| Fields | Condensed matter physics; surface physics; optics: expt. and theor. |
| Institutions | North Carolina State University |
| Alma mater | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign University of Wisconsin–Madison |
David Erik Aspnes (born 1 May 1939 in Madison, Wisconsin, United States) is a Distinguished University Professor and member of the Department of Physics at North Carolina State University. Formal education includes BS (1960) and MS (1961) degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a Ph.D. (1965) in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Obtained year long postdoctoral research associate positions at both the University of Illinois and Brown University before taking a technical staff position at Bell Laboratories in 1967. Joined Bellcore as a result of the Bell System divestiture in 1983 to head the Interface Physics Department. He joined the North Carolina State University Physics Department in 1992 as a full professor and was made a Distinguished University Professor in 1999. He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1998.
"Principal research interests have been in the areas of optical spectroscopy and semiconductor and surface physics. Contributions include the discovery, elucidation, and development of low-field electroreflectance for high-resolution spectroscopy of semiconductors and the determination of their band structures, the development and application of spectroscopic ellipsometry to surfaces, interfaces, thin films, and bulk materials, and the development and application of reflectance-difference spectroscopy to real-time analysis of epitaxial growth. Current research activities are directed toward nondestructive analysis of surfaces and interfaces, and in particular the real-time diagnostics and control of semiconductor epitaxy by organometallic chemical vapor deposition." [1]
As of 11 July 2008 David Aspnes has published over 400 papers and has been granted 23 patents.
David Aspnes currently resides in Apex, North Carolina with his wife, Cynthia Ball, and their many cats and dogs.
Father of James Aspnes, professor in Computer Science at Yale University and original creator of TinyMUD. Son Gary Aspnes is a scientist with Pfizer and daughter Ann Aspnes is a clinical psychologist with the Veterans Hospital system.