Dr. William B. Knowlton (Bill) joined the faculty in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boise State University in 2000 after working for Hewlett Packard Labs and Insight Analytical Labs. After coming to Boise State, he co-developed five new programs and the Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering. He has established two research laboratories and co-established another, brought more than $16.5M in funding to Boise State, and has published over 70 papers in peer reviewed journals or conferences. Dr. Knowlton's research activities include device reliability physics, materials characterization, nanofabrication, biomaterials, magnetic materials and molecular electronic devices, and he and his colleagues have developed a collaborative, multidisciplinary research cohort in which they share ideas, students, and resources.

Educational Background

Dr. Knowlton received his B.S in 1992, M.S. in 1995, and Ph.D. in 1998, in materials science and engineering from the University of California at Berkeley under the direction of Professor Eugene Haller. For his master of science work, he fabricated one of the first prototype dark matter particle (weakly interacting massive particle candidate or WIMP) detectors operating at 20 mK using phonon transparent ultra pure Ge eutectically bonded to neutron transmutation doped Ge. His doctoral work included the study of point defects and modeling diffusion in silicon and the development, fabrication, characterization of x-ray detectors and far-infrared resonant detectors.