Daniel Chemla
1940–2008
Daniel Chemla, former director of the ALS and Materials Sciences Divisions, and major intellectual driver in the establishment of the Molecular Foundry, died at home on Thursday, March 20. He had been battling a series of health problems since suffering a stroke four years ago. Despite those difficulties, he continued to actively lead his research group until very recently.
Daniel Chemla received his undergraduate education at l'Ecole National Supérieure
des Télécommunications in Paris, France, and his graduate education
at the University of Paris. He received his Doctorat ès Sciences in
1972 for research on Nonlinear Optical Processes in Tetrahedrally Coordinated
Semiconductors. He joined the Centre National d'Etudes des Télécommunications,
where he worked as a member of the technical staff, group leader, and department
head, conducting research on nonlinear optics in dielectric materials, organic
molecules and crystals, and compound semiconductors.
In 1981, Daniel Chemla joined AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ, where
he initiated research on optoelectronics in semiconductor quantum wells and superlattices.
In 1983, he became the Head of the Quantum Physics and Electronic Research Department.
In 1991, he accepted a joint appointment as Professor of Physics at the University
of California at Berkeley and Director of the Materials Sciences Division at
the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In June of 1998, he accepted the additional
responsibility for directing the Advanced Light Source, also at the Berkeley
Lab. Effective January 2003, Daniel Chemla stepped down as Director of the Materials
Sciences Division to concentrate on the Advanced Light Source.
As ALS Division Director, Daniel's strong vision and energetic leadership
guided the facility through the challenging years after the Birgeneau
Report questioned the viability of the ALS. His ambitious 20-year
roadmap for the ALS lay the groundwork for new beamlines, accelerator
upgrades, and expanded scientific programs in materials sciences, ultrafast
science, microscopy, and protein crystallography. During his seven-year
tenure at the ALS, the number of users grew from 659 to over 2000.
He stepped down as director in 2005. Acknowledging Daniel's extraordinary
contributions to the ALS, current ALS Director Roger Falcone observed,
"He was a visionary and tireless leader. He set the ALS on a path
of frontier science that we continue today, as was pointed out explicitly
in the recent BES review."
Daniel Chemla was a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and
a Fellow of the American Physical Society, of the Optical Society of
America, and of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
He was the recipient of the 1988 R.W. Wood prize of the Optical Society
of America, the 1995 Quantum Electronics Award of the IEEE Laser and
Electro-Optics Society, and a 1995 Humboldt Research Award. In 2005,
he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Ecole Normale Supérieure
(ENS) in Cachan, France. Also in year, a special
issue of the journal Chemical Physics: "Molecular Nanoscience—In
honour of Daniel S. Chemla on his 65th birthday" was published.
To read the full obituary from Berkeley Lab, go here.
View images of
Daniel's career that were shown at the Molecular
Nanoscience Workshop, held in honor
of his 65th birthday, on November 21, 2005.