Irving P. Herman Named APAM Department Chair

After six years of dedicated service, I. Cevdet Noyan, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and of Earth and Environmental Engineering, is stepping down as the APAM Department Chair and will take a sabbatical next year to focus on research at the Oak Ridge National Lab. APAM warmly thanks Prof. Noyan for his tireless efforts and leadership.

Starting in July 2018, Irving P. Herman, the Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor of Applied Physics, who was the APAM Department Chair from 2006-2012, will serve again as Chair.

Prof. Herman graduated with SB and PhD degrees in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972 and 1977. From 1977-1986 he was a member and section leader in O-group within the Physics Department at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he was engaged in research in laser isotope separation of deuterium and tritium, and the use of direct laser writing in thin film processing. In 1986, he joined the faculty of Columbia University, where he is now the Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor of Applied Physics and a member of the Columbia Nano Initiative (CNI) and the Columbia Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), which he directed from 1998 – 2010. He is Director of the Columbia Optics and Quantum Electronics IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program). 

Herman has written two comprehensive books: the monograph Optical Diagnostics for Thin Film Processing (Academic Press, San Diego) and the textbook Physics of the Human Body (Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York), now in its second edition. He has also developed three interactive seminars on ethics and presents them to students in his department.