Tony F. Heinz

Tony F. Heinz joined Columbia in 1995 after twelve years at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. Professor Heinz held a joint appointment in the departments of electrical engineering and physics. His teaching and research interests lie in the areas of 1) ultrafast optoelectronics and spectroscopy, and 2) surface dynamics and surface process control.

Dr. Heinz is a Professor of Applied Physics and Photon Science at Stanford University and the Associate Laboratory Director for Energy Sciences at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He received his undergraduate education at Stanford (BS, Physics, 1978) and his graduate training at UC Berkeley (PhD, Physics, 1982). His was a research staff member at the IBM Watson Research Center (1983–1995) and a Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering at Columbia University (1995–2014). He served as OSA President in 2012. He is an OSA Fellow and recipient of the 2020 William F. Meggers Award.

Dr. Heinz has developed a wide range of spectroscopic techniques to examine the properties and dynamics of nanoscale systems. These methods include interface sensitive nonlinear spectroscopy and time-resolved approaches, such as terahertz time-domain techniques. The measurement techniques have been applied to elucidate the electronic, optical, and chemical properties of 0-, 1-, and 2-dimensional materials and interfaces. The research would not have been possible without the insight and hard work of more than seventy graduate students and postdocs over the years.

Updated July 12, 2023