James C. Sturm, Ph.D.
Director of the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM) and a Professor of Electrical Engineering

2008 Researcher Category

James C. Sturm was born in Berkeley Heights, NJ, in 1957. He received the B.S.E. degree in electrical engineering and engineering physics from Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, in 1979, and the M.S.E.E. as well as Ph.D. degrees in 1981 and 1985, respectively, both from Stanford University, Stanford, CA.

In 1979 he joined Intel Corporation as a microprocessor design engineer and in 1981 he was a visiting engineer at Siemens in Munich, Germany. In 1986 he joined the faculty of Princeton University in the Department of Electrical Engineering, where he is currently the William and Edna Macaleer Professor of Engineering and Applied Science. From 1997 to 2003 he was Director of the Center for Photonics and Optoelectronic Materials (POEM), and since 2003 he has been the founding director of the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM).

His research and teaching focus on advanced semiconductor devices, materials, and applications. These include silicon-based heterostructures such as SiGe and SiGeC for electronic and optical devices, non-crystalline materials such as amorphous silicon and organic semiconductors for large-area electroncics (flat panels, solar cells, …), and the bio-nano interface. He especially enjoys working with industry to bring the benefits of new science and technology to society as a whole, and to help researchers understand important problems in the real world. New Jersey companies with which he has collaborated include AT&T, Bellcore, Evans East, Lucent Technologies, Matheson, PD-LD, Pharmaseq, Printed Transistor Inc. (co-founder), Sarnoff, Sensors Unlimited, Structured Materials Industries, Universal Display, and Voltaix.

Dr. Sturm has won numerous awards for teaching excellence, including six awards from the Princeton student Engineering Council, the Princeton University President’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and the W.M. Keck Foundation Award for Engineering Teaching Excellence. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), president of the Device Research Conference, and is on the boards of directors of the Materials Research Society and of Aegis Lightwave.