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In Memoriam: Bruce Wessels, 1946 - 2024
Apr 07, 2024
Bruce Wessels, Optica Fellow, Senior Member and Professor Emeritus at Northwestern University, passed away on 7 April 2024 at the age of 77. He was best known for his work studying thin films and nanostructures for electronic, magnetic, and photonic materials applications.
Wessels grew up in Glen Cove, New York, and graduated from Glen Cove High School in 1964. Early on, he became interested in science and envisioned becoming a metallurgical engineer. Wessels attended the University of Pennsylvania and studied engineering. After receiving his bachelor’s, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a PhD in materials science in 1972.
Wessels went to work for General Electric for five years, where he developed a practical process for light-emitting diode fabrication. He then joined the Northwestern Engineering faculty as an assistant professor in 1977, and three years later became an associate professor. In 1984, he became a professor of materials science and engineering, and in 1987, was appointed by the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). Wessels was named a Walter P. Murphy Professor in 1998. Northwestern credits him as the founder of the Electronic Materials concentration within the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, where he led the program from 1980-1990. In 2005, he was named Chair of the EECS department, which he led for two years. In 2020, Wessels transitioned to emeritus status.
During his academic career at Northwestern, Wessels discovered a technique for preparing high conductivity, epitaxial II-VI compounds suitable for optoelectronic devices through defect control and a method of preparing rare-earth doped epitaxial III-V compounds. He also developed epitaxial ferroelectric thin films for integrated optical applications.
He held 21 US patents and authored over 400 articles, which have been cited more than 13,000 times.
Wessels was also involved with Optica’s technical groups, including Optoelectronics (PO) and Integrated Photonics (PI). In 2018, he was a Guest Editor of Optica’s Optics Materials Express.
Wessels was named a Senior Member of Optica 2012 for his professional experience in the field. In 2014, he was named a Fellow for pioneering research in epitaxial materials and devices, especially wide-gap semiconductors and ferroelectric oxides for optoelectronic and electro-optic applications.
Optica and the scientific community mourn his loss.
