Former Chair of Materials Science and Engineering To Retire from the University

Professor and Former Chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), Aris Christou, will retire from the University of Maryland in December of 2024 after 34 years of service.

“My 34 years at the university have been a rewarding adventure, and the time has come to step aside as a regular faculty member and become emeritus,” he said.

A renowned materials scientist, Christou holds over 300 publications in archival journals and 14 patents related to compound semiconductor materials and process science, radiation effects in materials and devices, manufacturing science and reliability. His work has been cited 2,998 times, and has appeared in journals like Applied Physics Letters, Microelectronics Reliability and Electronics Letters.

In 1993, the professor was appointed chair of the Materials and Nuclear Engineering department, and served until it was renamed to MSE ten years later. During his tenure, he oversaw two graduate programs in nuclear engineering and reliability, and helped establish the new undergraduate program in MSE, which ranked 25 nationwide according to the U.S. News and World Report in 2003.

“We are extremely grateful to Aris for many years of service as the chair of Materials and Nuclear Engineering. It was a critical period for our department, and he played a central role in ushering in the new era as we became MSE,” said Ichiro Takeuchi, interim chair of the department.

Some of his recognitions include the ASM International Burgess Memorial Award (2007), the International Network for Engineering Education and Research Achievement Award (2004), the UMD Invention of the Year Award in physical sciences (1999), a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1993), the Fulbright Scholar Award (1985), the recipient of the Department of Defense Alan Berman Publication Awards (1976 and 1977) and the Millennium Medal from the University of Bologna (1990).

The professor has authored a total of six books, including Reliability of Analogue Microwave Integrated Circuits, published by the Reliability Information Analysis Center in 2006, and Reliability of GaAs Monolithic Integrated Circuits (Second Edition), published by Wiley in 1995.

Prior to joining the university as faculty, Christou worked at the United States Naval Research Laboratory since 1971 as a researcher in the area of high strength metals. In 1976, he switched his research to study compound semiconductor materials, emphasizing the growth of these compounds via molecular-beam epitaxy. He later became the Head of the Surface Physics Branch until 1990, when he was appointed professor at UMD, with joint appointments in MSE and the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He currently holds positions with the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute, the Center for Risk and Reliability and the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering.

Additionally, his research in optical interconnects led to the establishment of the Center for Optoelectronic Devices, Interconnects, and Packaging—a National Science Foundation cooperative center with the University of Arizona—and the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) Lidar, a partnership between UMD and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Prior to his industry experience, the professor graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor of science in physics in 1967, and later obtained a doctorate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in materials science and engineering in 1971.

Published November 19, 2024