Prof Dierolf came to Lehigh in 2000 with a Ph.D in Physics from the University of Utah, and a Habilitation from the University of Paderborn, Germany, He is the current Chair of the Physics Department and holds a Joint appointment with the Materials Science Department. In 2008, he was a Visiting Mercator Professor at the University of Bonn. He is on the International Committees of both the International and the European Conference on Defect in Insulating Materials (ICDIM, EuroDIM). He has served as a Principal Editor for the Journal of Materials Research and has been Guest Editor for Optical Materials. His research is focused on the optical spectroscopy and microscopy of insulating and semiconducting materials. His group exploits the wealth of information that can be obtained by combining high spatial resolution (down to 50nm) of a near field optical microscope or a SEM instrument with the structural and atomic scale information contained in excitation-emission data, cathodoluminescence and Raman spectra.
Ferguson holds a Ph.D. in compound semiconductors from University of St. Andrews in Scotland (1989). He also holds a master of science in optoelectronics and laser devices from St. Andrews (1986) and a bachelor of science degree in physics from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland (1984). Prior to joining UNC Charlotte, Ferguson was a professor of electrical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology from 2001 to 2009. While at Georgia Tech, he also served as director of the Focused Research Program on Next-Generation Lighting and held a faculty appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering from 2004 through 2009.
Dr. Zavada received a BA degree in physics from Catholic University and MS and PhD degrees, also in physics, from New York University. He has held previous academic appointments at North Carolina State University and the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and a recipient of the Army’s Meritorious Civilian Service Award.