Gene Frederick Dresselhaus (November 7, 1929, in

Ancón, Panama Ancón is a corregimiento in Panamá District, Panamá Province, Panama with a population of 29,761 as of 2010. Its population as of 1990 was 11,518; its population as of 2000 was 11,169. It is sometimes considered a suburb or small town within P ...

– September 29, 2021, in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

)biographical information from ''American Men and Women of Science'', Thomson Gale 2004 was an American condensed matter physicist. He is known as a pioneer of

spintronics Spintronics (a portmanteau meaning spin transport electronics), also known as spin electronics, is the study of the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-st ...

and for his 1955 discovery of the eponymous Dresselhaus effect.

Biography

Dresselhaus studied physics at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, receiving his bachelor's degree in 1951 and his doctorate in 1955. At Berkeley he worked under the supervision of

Charles Kittel Charles Kittel (July 18, 1916 – May 15, 2019) was an American physicist. He was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley from 1951 and was professor emeritus from 1978 until his death. He is known for co-introducing the Ruderman� ...

and Arthur F. Kip on early cyclotron resonance experiments on

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

s and

semimetal A semimetal is a material with a small energy overlap between the bottom of the Electrical conduction, conduction Electronic band structure, band and the top of the valence band, but they do not overlap in momentum space. According to Band theory ...

s. As a postdoc Dresselhaus was for the academic year 1955–1956 an instructor at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. From 1956 to 1960 he was an assistant professor at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. He was also a consultant to

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

Research Laboratories from 1956 to 1960 and to the

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1943, the laboratory is sponsored by the United Sta ...

from 1958 to 1960. From 1960 he worked at the

Lincoln Laboratory The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense federally funded research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and dev ...

of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT) and from 1977 at the Francis Bitter National Magnetic Laboratory of MIT. He was also a professor of physics at MIT. He did research on

carbon nanotube A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with a diameter in the nanometre range ( nanoscale). They are one of the allotropes of carbon. Two broad classes of carbon nanotubes are recognized: * ''Single-walled carbon nanotubes'' (''S ...

fullerene A fullerene is an allotropes of carbon, allotrope of carbon whose molecules consist of carbon atoms connected by single and double bonds so as to form a closed or partially closed mesh, with fused rings of five to six atoms. The molecules may ...

s, electronic energy bands in solids, surface impedance of metals,

exciton An exciton is a bound state of an electron and an electron hole which are attracted to each other by the electrostatic Coulomb's law, Coulomb force resulting from their opposite charges. It is an electrically neutral quasiparticle regarded as ...

s in insulators, electronic surface states, optical properties of solids, and

high-temperature superconductivity High-temperature superconductivity (high-c or HTS) is superconductivity in materials with a critical temperature (the temperature below which the material behaves as a superconductor) above , the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. They are "high- ...

. In 1958 he married the physicist

Mildred Dresselhaus Mildred Spiewak Dresselhaus''Mildred Dresselhaus'' was elected in 197 ...

(née Spiewak) — for many years the couple extensively collaborated and published their scientific findings. They had a daughter and three sons.

Honors and awards

He was elected in 1966 a Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

. In 2022 he shared the

Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize The Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize is an annual award given by the American Physical Society "to recognize and encourage outstanding theoretical or experimental contributions to condensed matter physics." It was endowed by AT&T Bell Labor ...

with Emmanuel I. Rashba for "pioneering research on spin-orbit coupling in crystals, particularly the foundational discovery of chiral spin-orbit interactions, which continue to enable new developments in spin transport and topological materials." His death in 2021 shortly preceded the announcement of the prize.

Selected publications

Articles

* * * * * * * *

Books

* (1st edition 1988) * * (1st edition 2001) * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dresselhaus, Gene 1929 births 2021 deaths University of California, Berkeley alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty American condensed matter physicists 20th-century American physicists 21st-century American physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize winners Cornell University faculty People from Panamá District Panamanian people of German descent