Phaedon Avouris is an IBM Fellow and manager of Nanometer Scale Science and Technology at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York. He is also Adjunct Professor at Columbia University in New York City. He received his B.S. degree from the Aristotelian University in Greece, and his Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry from Michigan State University in 1994. After postdoctoral work at UCLA and AT&T Bell Laboratories, he joined the Research Division of IBM in 1978.
Over the years, his research has involved a wide variety of subjects ranging from laser studies of fast phenomena, surface physics and chemistry, scanning tunneling microscopy and atom manipulation. His current research is focused on experimental and theoretical studies of the electrical properties and transport mechanisms of carbon nanotubes, molecules and other nanostructures. The work includes the design, fabrication and study of model carbon nanotube and molecular electronic devices and circuits.