H. Kumar Wickramasinghe

IBM Almaden Research Center

Senior Manager, Nanoscale Science and Technology

A distinguished pioneer in the invention and practical uses of nanotechnology, Dr. Hemantha Kumar Wickramasinghe now manages nanoscience and technology research at IBM's Almaden Research Center, San Jose, Calif.

A native of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wickramasinghe was educated at the University of London (B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering in 1970 and 1974, respectively). After a post-doctoral appointment in the Applied Physics Department at Stanford University, he joined the Electrical Engineering Department at University College, London, in 1978, gaining tenure in 1982.

In 1984, Wickramasinghe joined IBM Research at the T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. There, he led the team that developed atomic force microscopes (AFMs) into fully hardened instruments that could be used both within IBM and outside. He invented a number of novel scanning probe microscopes and near-field optical instruments and applied them to data storage and in-situ measurements that improve the yield and/or throughput of manufacturing lines.

Among the microscopes he helped invent are the vibrating mode AFM, magnetic force microscope, electrostatic force microscope, kelvin probe force microscope, scanning thermal microscope and the apertureless near-field optical microscope.

In June 2001, Wickramasinghe moved to Almaden to lead the development of technology aimed at increasing the data density of magnetic hard-disk drives. He was named manager of nanoscale and quantum studies in August 2002.

Dr. Wickramasinghe is a fellow of the American Physical Society, and the United Kingdom's Institute of Physics, Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Royal Microscopical Society. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1998.

In 2000, Wickramasinghe and Calvin Quate of Stanford U. received the American Physical Soceity's Joseph F. Keithley Award for their "pioneering contributions to nanoscale measurement science through their leadership in the development of a range of nanoscale force microscopes that have had major impact in many areas of physics."

He received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Best Paper Award (in the IEEE publication, Group on Sonics and Ultrasonics Transactions) in 1982, the V. K. Zworykin Premium award of the IEE in 1983, and the IEEE Morris E. Leeds Award in 1992. He was named Distinguished Corporate Inventor of the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1998 and was chosen to be a Centennial Lecturer for the American Physical Society in 1999.