ABSTRACT
Alex Ignatiev, PhD, is distinguished university professor of physics, chemistry, and electrical and computer engineering. Dr. Ignatiev is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Cornell University where he received his PhD in materials science in 1972. He is a former Fulbright Fellow, associate editor for Vacuum, and is the director of the Texas Center for Advanced Materials. He has been elected to the International Academy of Astronautics for his work in advanced materials development in space, and has been the recipient of the NSM Alumni Achievement Award, the Texas State Senate Recognition Award, and the City of Houston Science Recognition Award. He has developed the Wake Shield Facility space science payload that has flown three times on the Space Shuttle for the study of thin film growth in the vacuum of space. His research interests are focused on advanced thin film materials and device development and surface chemical interactions that form the basis for thin film growth. Recent efforts have been in the research of optical micro-detectors for artificial retina, thin film solar cells, thin film solid oxide fuel cells, thin film oxide resistive random access memory, and the fabrication of thin film solar cells on the Moon from lunar resources. He is the author of over 300 published research papers, holds 15 patents, and has been instrumental in the spinoff of five companies taking UH advanced materials technologies into the private sector.
