Michael Roukes

Who is Michael Roukes?

Michael Lee Roukes is an American experimental physicist, nanoscientist, and the Robert M. Abbey Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology.

Roukes was born in Redwood City, California. After earning B.A. degrees in physics and chemistry in 1978 at University of California, Santa Cruz, with highest honors in both majors, he received his Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University in 1985. His graduate advisor at Cornell was Nobel Laureate, Robert Coleman Richardson. Roukes’ thesis research at Cornell elucidated the electron-phonon bottleneck at ultra low temperatures; the hot electron effect that is now recapitulated in texts on solid state transport physics. Stated in simplest terms, when electrons carry current in normal conductors, they heat up. At low temperatures and, now, in nanoscale devices at ordinary temperatures, their ability to dissipate this heat can be significantly impaired. This has generic implications for the operation of powered nanodevices.

After earning his Ph.D., Roukes spent seven years as a Member of Technical Staff / Principal Investigator in the Quantum Structures Research group at Bell Communications Research in New Jersey, focusing on mesoscopic physics of electron transport in nanostructures. Roukes left Bellcore to become a tenured Associate Professor of Physics at Caltech in 1992, rising to full professorship in 1995, and subsequently became Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Bioengineering in 2000. Upon moving to Caltech, his principal research focus changed to nanoelectromechanical systems. As the earliest pioneer in this field, DARPA engaged Roukes to organize the first international workshop on NEMS in 1999, followed by a large international conference and school on nanoscale and molecular mechanics in 2002. The many alumni from his group continue to advance this field at major universities in the U.S. and abroad. Roukes' other research efforts at Caltech have focused on thermal properties of nanostructures, semiconductor spintronics, and, more recently, nanobiotechnology.