Dear WSE faculty and staff,
I am delighted to share with you the news that Howard Katz, a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has been appointed interim chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, effective July 1, succeeding Jonah Erlebacher. I know you share my deep appreciation and admiration for Jonah’s leadership and vision over the past six years.
Howard is widely recognized as a pioneer in the fields of organic electronics and photonics. His research interests lie in organic/hybrid materials, especially organic semiconductors, novel conjugated compounds, molecular recognition and self-assembly, novel approaches to fabrication, high-field devices, volatile compound and biomarker sensing, energy conversion, and logic devices. He established the structural, physical and synthetic organic chemical principles for several material classes, including molecular semiconductors and nonlinear optical polymers, as they first emerged, from their inception as scientific discoveries through their widespread investigation and application.
He holds 56 U.S. patents, has two R&D 100 Awards, and was named to the National Academy of Inventors in 2017. He is a Fellow of American Chemical Society, the American Physical Society, and the AAAS as well as the 2008 Inaugural Fellow of the Materials Research Society. Howard is an elected member of the JHU Academic Council.
Howard previously chaired the department from 2008 to 2014. He joined Johns Hopkins in 2004.
I hope that you will join me in congratulating Howard.
Sincerely,
Ed Schlesinger
Benjamin T. Rome Dean