Samuel Graham, Jr. is an American engineer and currently the dean of the Clark School of Engineering at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

. He was previously the Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair and Professor at

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...

. Graham is a Fellow of the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing edu ...

and serves on the Advisory Board of the

Air Force Research Laboratory The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a scientific research and development detachment of the United States Air Force Air Force Materiel Command, Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of direct- ...

Early life and education

Graham studied engineering at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

. He was a graduate student at

, where he earned a doctoral degree under the supervision of David L. McDowell in 1999. After completing his PhD research, Graham joined

Sandia National Laboratories Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), also known as Sandia, is one of three research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Headquartered in Kirtland Air Force B ...

Research and career

In 2003 Graham was appointed Assistant Professor at

, where he leads the Electronics Manufacturing and Reliability Laboratory. His research considers the fabrication, encapsulation and packaging of semiconductor devices. Specifically, Graham has studied wide bandgap semiconductors (including

gallium nitride Gallium nitride () is a binary III/ V direct bandgap semiconductor commonly used in blue light-emitting diodes since the 1990s. The compound is a very hard material that has a Wurtzite crystal structure. Its wide band gap of 3.4 eV af ...

, GaN, gallium oxide and

hafnium dioxide Hafnium is a chemical element; it has symbol Hf and atomic number 72. A lustrous, silvery gray, tetravalent transition metal, hafnium chemically resembles zirconium and is found in many zirconium minerals. Its existence was predicted by Dmit ...

), and how they interact with their substrates (including

silicon carbide Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum (), is a hard chemical compound containing silicon and carbon. A wide bandgap semiconductor, it occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite, but has been mass-produced as a powder a ...

). Such materials are often used in

radio frequency Radio frequency (RF) is the oscillation rate of an alternating electric current or voltage or of a magnetic, electric or electromagnetic field or mechanical system in the frequency range from around to around . This is roughly between the u ...

communications. In these devices, thermal resistance at interfaces limits their performance. To understand how the operational stability of devices based on these materials, Graham makes use of electro-thermal and thermomechanical modeling. Beyond his work on inorganic materials, Graham has worked on devices made from organic electronic materials. Using vacuum-based deposition to create ultrathin barriers that protect organic materials from degradation. Such barriers are essential for the realization of wearable devices and next-generation displays based upon these materials. In 2018 Graham was appointed Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair at

. He has worked with Baratunde A. Cola to create the Academic and Research Leadership (ARL) program, which prepares minority engineers for careers in academia and industry. In 2021 Graham was appointed dean of the Clark School of Engineering at the

. Graham's new position began October 1, 2021.

Select publications

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Personal life

Graham is married with two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Samuel Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American mechanical engineers Florida State University alumni Georgia Tech alumni Georgia Tech faculty