Assistant Professor of Physics
Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials
McCullough Bldg., Room 346
(650) 724-3709
Email: goldhaber-gordon@stanford.edu
Website: http://www.stanford.edu/group/GGG/

Professional Experience and Honors

Goldhaber-Gordon is an Assistant Professor in the Stanford Physics Department and Deputy Director of the Center for Probing the Nanoscale. Goldhaber-Gordon's experimental research aims to elucidate how electrons in semiconductors behave when they are confined to small "boxes," restricted to discrete quantized states (instead of being able to move freely) in one, two, or even all three spatial dimensions. This emerging field of enquiry is called mesoscopic physics, exploring as it does length scales between the microscopic size of atoms and the macroscopic scale of conveniently-grasped everyday objects. Over the last decade, mesoscopic physics has forced us to grapple with new ways of thinking about quantum mechanics, measurement, and dephasing, especially for systems of interacting particles. Within CPN, Goldhaber-Gordon is extending the technique of scanning gate microscopy, which allows researchers to map the arrangement and flow of electrons in mesoscopic structures.

Prior to joining Stanford, Goldhaber-Gordon was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows, and received his Ph.D. in Physics from MIT (1999) and a Master's in History of Science from Harvard (1994).  Goldhaber-Gordon's most prominent contribution has been his discovery of the Kondo effect in a semiconductor single-electron transistor. The Kondo effect is the interaction of a magnetic impurity atom with a surrounding metal host, and Goldhaber-Gordon's contribution enabled study of this classic system in a new and more tunable context, spurring a world-wide renaissance in this area. For this work, Goldhaber-Gordon has received many distinctions. In 2002, he received the inaugural George E. Valley Prize. This prize is awarded biannually to one individual, under age 30 or within 5 years of Ph.D., for his or her outstanding contribution to the knowledge of physics. Also in 2002, he received the University of Illinois's McMillan Award in condensed matter physics, the premier recognition for a young condensed matter experimentalist or theorist.  He recently received the 2006 Award for Initiatives in Research from the National Academy of Sciences, and is a current holder of a Packard Fellowship.