John D. Cressler – Center for Space Hardware Assembly, Fabrication and Testing

Schlumberger Chair Professor in Electronics

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

777 Atlantic Drive N.W.

Atlanta, GA 30332

404.894.5161

cressler@ece.gatech.edu

The basic thrust of Professor Cressler’s research is in the understanding, optimization, and utilization of silicon-based heterostructure devices, circuits, and systems for next-generation, performance-constrained, communications applications within the global electronics infrastructure. He and his team attempt to break the business-as-usual mold in this field and reimagine the way electronics in the 21st century can and should be practiced. To do this, his team specializes in emerging mixed-signal (i.e., RF, microwave, mm-wave, analog, and digital) integrated circuit technologies utilizing atomic-scale bandgap engineering with silicon-germanium (SiGe) alloys. His research focus is heavily on SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology, a silicon foundry compatible integrated circuit technology possessing unprecedented levels of performance (greater than 500 GHz peak frequency response in 2013), enabling a host of potentially paradigm-shifting applications in the realms of wired and wireless communications, radar systems, imaging/sensor technologies, and a broad spectrum of possibilities in so-called “extreme environments.”

He and his students have published over 700 scientific papers in this field and he has graduated 54 Ph.D. students during his academic career. He was elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2001 for his research contributions, and was awarded the 2010 Class of 1940 W. Howard Ector Outstanding Teacher Award (Georgia Tech’s top teaching award), the 2011 IEEE Leon Kirchmayer Graduate Teaching Award (the IEEE’s top graduate teaching award), and the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award (the highest honor Georgia Tech bestows on its faculty).

John D. Cressler received his B.S. from Georgia Tech in 1984, and his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1990. From 1984 to 1992, he was on the research staff at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, and from 1992 to 2002 he served on the faculty at Auburn University. In 2002, he joined the faculty at Georgia Tech, and is currently Schlumberger Chair Professor in Electronics in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Ken Byers Teaching Fellow in Science and Religion.

Cressler’s books include: Silicon-Germanium Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors, Reinventing Teenagers: the Gentle Art of Instilling Character in Our Young People, Silicon Heterostructure Handbook, Silicon Earth: Introduction to Microelectronics and Nanotechnology, Extreme Environment Electronics, and the historical novels Emeralds of the Alhambra, Shadows in the Shining City, and Fortune’s Lament, love stories set in medieval Muslim Spain.