Kumar Wickramasinghe is an Electrical Engineer/Physicist who has introduced and deployed several molecular resolution microscopes named ‘scanning probe microscopes’ (SPM) for nanoscale imaging of electrical, optical, magnetic and thermal properties of surfaces. Notable is the Magnetic Force Microscope for quality control in disk drive manufacturing and the Kelvin Probe Force Microscope for imaging charge states and work functions of novel semiconductor and solar cell materials.
He pioneered and led the development and deployment of the vibrating probe (or dynamic mode) atomic force microscope (AFM)– an instrument for non-destructive profiling of surfaces with atomic resolution used in all nanotechnology laboratories today.
Kumar is a Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, IBM Fellow (Ret) and the recipient of a number of awards including the APS Keithley Award for ‘pioneering contributions to nanoscale measurement science through leadership in the development of a range of nanoscale force microscopes that have had a major impact in many areas of Physics’, Scientific American 50 award and the IEEE Morris Leeds award.
Professional position
- University of California, Irvine
Subject groups
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Molecules of Life
Cell biology (incl molecular cell biology)
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Health and Human Sciences
Medical instrumentation
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Astronomy and Physics
Biophysics, Condensed matter incl softmatter, liquids, nano-materials, Lasers and optoelectronics
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Engineering and Materials Science
Engineering, electrical, Engineering, electronics, Instrumentation, Materials science (incl materials engineering)
