Alex Zettl
Encyclopedia
Alex Zettl is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 professor of experimental condensed-matter physics. His research involving the properties of novel materials have produced significant advances in the field.

Biography

Zettl received a B.A. degree from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 in 1978. He received a Ph.D. degree from University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...

 in 1983. He joined the faculty of the UCB Physics Department in 1983. He is currently a Professor of Physics and a Senior Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory conducting unclassified scientific research. It is located on the grounds of the University of California, Berkeley, in the Berkeley Hills above the central campus...

.

Significant Research Results

He is part of a Nanotechnology group at UCB, the Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems He holds patents on the nanoradio, the nano mass sensor and other developments from this center's research.

The research of Zettl, Kenneth Jensen, Jeff Weldon and Henry Garcia culminated in a single nanotube mounted on the tip of a metal electrode. When an electric current is passed between that nanotube and another, shorter, nanotube mounted nearby, an FM radio-frequency signal can be sensed by the nanotube, and the signal is converted into an audible signal without any other circuitry required. This remarkable phenomenon was first described in the November 2007 issue of Nano Letters
Nano Letters
Nano Letters is a monthly, peer-reviewed, scientific journal, published by the American Chemical Society. It was first published in January 2001. The two Co-Editors-in-Chief are A. Paul Alivisatos and Charles M. Lieber...

, a monthly publication of the American Chemical Society
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 161,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical...

. In that same issue, independent University of California, Irvine
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...

, researchers Peter Burke and Chris Rutherglen announced a similar result - sensing and demodulating an AM radio-frequency signal, although their apparatus included conventional circuitry for antenna and amplification.

Honors and awards

  • Presidential Young Investigator Award
    Presidential Young Investigator Award
    The Presidential Young Investigator Award was awarded by the National Science Foundation. The program operated from 1984 to 1991, and was replaced by the NSF Young Investigator Awards and Presidential Faculty Fellows Program...

    (1984–1989)
  • Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1984–1986)
  • IBM Faculty Development Award (1985–1987)
  • Miller Professorship (1995)
  • Lucent Technologies Faculty Award (1996)
  • Fellow of the American Physical Society (1999)
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Outstanding Performance Award (2004)
  • R & D 100 Award (2004)
  • James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials (2006)
  • Miller Professorship (2007)

External links

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