Christian Wetzel

Christian Wetzel is a Professor in the Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and serves as the associate dean of science for research and graduate programs in the School of Science. He joined RPI in 2004 as a member of the Future Chips Constellation and is an active participant in the Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications ERC (formerly known as the Smart Lighting ERC).

Wetzel earned his PhD from Technical University Munich and held research appointments at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Meijo University, Japan, where he worked in the labs of the 2014 Nobel Prize winners in Physics. Prior to joining RPI, he worked in industry as a project manager pursuing high-efficiency green LEDs.

As a recognized leader in LED-based solid-state lighting research, Wetzel's work spans materials physics, epitaxial growth of wide bandgap group-III nitrides, device design, and metrology. His research contributes to substantial worldwide energy savings through higher efficiency lighting and emerging power electronics. His most recent publications focus on zincblende GaN growth on silicon substrates, polarization effects in nitride heterostructures, and advanced LED and power device integration.

• U.S. Department of Energy awards for contributions to energy-efficient lighting technology

Wetzel chairs numerous conferences on solid-state lighting and nitride semiconductors, serves as an active officer in academic societies, and collaborates across science and engineering disciplines with industry and government laboratories. He oversees several graduate programs within the School of Science including the Accelerated B.S.-Ph.D. program and the Biochemistry-Biophysics graduate program.

His research initiatives are primarily conducted through the Center for Future Energy Systems (CFES), the Center for Materials, Devices, and Integrated Systems (CMDIS), and the Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications (LESA) center, where he pursues new energy efficiency topics with faculty across the Troy campus.