In-Person CNLS Conference Room (TA-3, Bldg 1690) Thursday, Mar. 30, 2023 3:45 – 4:45 pm (MT) Light refreshments 3:15 - 3:45 pm Speaker: Wolfgang Windl Ohio State University “From Atoms to Industry: The Discovery, Design, and Commercialization of Novel Functional Materials” Abstract: In the first part of this talk, I will briefly summarize my journey from a PhD in physics concerned with Density-Functional Theory calculations to positions at a national lab (LANL), in academia (OSU), and in industry (Motorola) and will discuss the pros and cons of these different types of work environment. In the second part, I will describe how the sum of these experiences, which I initially had felt to be unconnected, got me on a track to pursue research in 2D and layered materials and eventually commercialize functional devices built from them. The 2D field started with the graphene revolution in 2004 and led us and others to the discovery and design of new materials with unexpected properties, among those “goniopolar materials,” which display the two fundamental types of charge transport (“n-type” or “p-type” based on electrons or holes as carriers) simultaneously in the same crystal, which in regular materials can never happen. This unique property allows to design functional devices with revolutionary new architectures, which I will briefly discuss. Bio: Wolfgang Windl is 2023 IMS Distinguished Faculty Scholar at LANL and will be on site until early May. He is Professor in the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Physics at The Ohio State University where he was also responsible for the graduate studies program from 2015-19. Outside of OSU, Wolfgang is co-founder and vice president of the device company GonioTech. Before joining OSU in 2001, he spent four years with Motorola, ending his tenure as Principal Staff Scientist in the Digital DNA Laboratories in Austin, TX. Previously, he held postdoctoral positions at Arizona State University and at Los Alamos National Laboratory in T-Division with Art Voter and Joel Kress. He received his diploma and doctoral degree in physics from the University of Regensburg, Germany. He received the first Fraunhofer-Bessel Research Award jointly from the Humboldt Foundation and Fraunhofer Society in 2006; a 2004 Nanotechnology Industrial Impact Award from the Nano Science and Technology Institute; two Patent and Licensing Awards from Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1998 and 1999; 2019 Best Paper in Graduate Studies and Best Diversity Paper Awards from ASEE; the 2020 Faculty Diversity Excellence Award, four Lumley Research Awards, and the 2015 Boyer Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the College of Engineering; and 2006 and 2015 Mars Fontana Best Teacher Awards from his department.