George Grüner is an American-Hungarian physicist, currently Distinguished Professor of Physics at University of California, Los Angeles
EDUCATION George Gruner received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Budapest, Hungary in 1966 and 72, and was postdoctoral associate at Imperial College, London in 1972-73.
PROFESSIONAL ENGAGEMENT Between 1966 and 1980 he was Research Scientist at the Central Research Institute of Physics, Budapest and in 1973 he became the head of the Department of "Organic Metals" a then new area of solid state physics. In 1981 he was appointed Professor of Physics at UCLA and became Distinguished Professor of the university in 1984. During his tenure, Dr. Gruner served as the Director of UCLA’s Solid State Science Center, directed a research group at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and was a Visiting Professor at several leading universities and academic institutions worldwide.
RESEARCH Dr. Grüner’s long research career has focused on solid-state physics. He has made major contributions to our understanding of the interactions between electrons and how they generate new electronic states of matter. His research group has designed and developed spectroscopic methods that explore the energy spectrum below that of conventional optics with unparalleled sensitivity and precision. His experiments explored the collective and single particle electron states of interacting electrons in solids. The experiments had significant impact in major areas of solid-state physics: renormalized electron liquid states brought about by magnetic impurities and constituents (the Kondo and the Heavy Fermion problem), the non-Fermi liquid states of nearly one-dimensional metals, collective modes and single particle excitations of broken symmetry density wave states, and quantum phase transitions brought about by the interplay of disorder and interactions.
More recently his focus has shifted to nanoscale materials and devices, in particular to the creation and exploration of networks of electrically conducting nanowires. He coined the name Nanonets and has explored the manufacturing routes and electrical properties of such networks. A variety of functional elements can easily be attached to these networks, producing the specific attributes needed for applications in a variety of areas including biotechnology, printed electronics and energy storage and generation.
He is the author of two books and more than 400 research articles, published with approximately 1000 coauthors. The citations to these publications exceed 30000.
COMMERCIALIZATION George Gruner has developed a platform technology based on carbon Nanonets and explored the application opportunities in a wide range of industries. From 2001 to 2005 he was Chief Technology Officer and Chief Scientist of Nanomix, a company developing nanoscale biosensors based on electronic detection. As inventor of the underlying technology, Grüner took responsibility for developing the company’s first product and its intellectual portfolio. In 2005 he founded Unidym, a company specializing in carbon-based electronics. As Chief Executive Officer and then Chief Scientist, Dr. Grüner steered the company through its first funding round and its initial phase of technology and business development. Three years later he launched Amperics, a materials-based energy storage company exploiting technologies developed within his research group. During his career Dr. Grüner has filed more than 30 patents and patent applications.
EDITORIAL WORK In recent years Dr. Grüner has pioneered the concept of translational materials research – the steps needed to convert scientific discoveries into commercial products and applications – and now advises a number of high-profile organizations on global innovation strategies and the business of science. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Translational Materials Research and serves on the editorial board of several publications, including Nanotechnology.
AWARDS • Highly Cited Scientist (Rank 142 in physics) 2003 • Technology Pioneer, World economic forum 2003 • Guggenheim Fellow 1998 • Honorary Professor Technical University of Budapest 1992 • Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences 1990 • Fellow of the American Physical Society 1988 • Alexander von Humboldt Senior American Scientist Award 1984
SELECTED LECTURES AND PANEL MEMBERSHIPS • 2003 "Emerging Technologies" Lecture World Economic Forum Davos • 2007 Cheng Tsang Man Visiting Professor NTU • 2008 Technology Panel World Economic Forum Davos • 2009 Distinguished Technology Panel Global Competitiveness Forum Riyadh • 2011 Distinguished Visiting Professor King Abdullah University Jeddah • 2012 The 2012 Distinguished Lecture in Physics Hong Kong University