.

Chris G. Van de Walle

Chris G. Van de Walle

Herbert Kroemer Distinguished Professor
Materials 
NAE

Affiliation: 
Materials

Contact

(805) 893.7144
2510 Engineering II

University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106

Member of : 

National Academy of Engineering

Fellow of: 

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Materials Research Society, American Physical Society, American Vacuum Society

Honors

2025 Heinrich Welker Award, International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors; Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics, American Physical Society; Materials Theory Award, Materials Research Society (MRS); Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, U.S. Department of Defense; John Bardeen Award, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS); Medard W. Welch Award, American Vacuum Society (AVS); David Adler Award, American Physical Society (APS); Humboldt Research Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany; Highly Cited Researcher, Clarivate Analytics

Research

Inorganic Materials, Electronic and Photonic Materials

His research interests lie in novel electronic materials, including wide-band-gap semiconductors (III-V nitrides, II-VI compounds), transparent conductors, and complex oxides; loss mechanisms in light emitters; two-dimensional conductors; quantum information science; and physics and chemistry of hydrogen interactions with solids. First-principles computational techniques are used to study atomic and electronic structure of crystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous materials; interfaces, surfaces, and defects; and heterojunctions and superlattices.

Education

PhD Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
Ir., Rijksuniversiteit Gent, Belgium