Gertrude Neumark

Gertrude Fanny Neumark, also known as Gertrude Neumark Rothschild, (April 29, 1927–November 11, 2010^[1]) was an American physicist, most noted for her work in semiconducting materials and phosphors.

She was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1927. Her family, who were Jewish, fled Germany in 1935.^[1]

Education

She graduated from Barnard College in 1948, completing an M.A. at Radcliffe College the next year, and a Ph.D. at Columbia in 1951.^[1] She joined the Sylvania Research Laboratories in Bayside, NY in 1952 as a Senior Physicist. She moved in 1960 to the Philips Laboratories, Briarcliff Manor, NY where she worked until 1985. She was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1982. From 1982 to 1985 she was visiting or adjunct Professor of Materials Science at Columbia, and became Professor of Materials Science there in 1985.^[2]

In 2009, she was the Howe Professor Emerita of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor Emerita of Applied Physics and Mathematics at Columbia University.

Patents

Neumark holds a number of patents on wide-bandgap semiconductor technology. In 2006, she settled out of court with a number of LED manufacturers.^[3]

In 2008, Neumark filed a complaint seeking to block imports into the United States of a range of products that she said were infringing her patents on wide-bandgap semiconductor technology,^[4] resulting in a number of companies agreeing to license the patents.^[5]

References