Rate My Professor Paul Berger

Paul R. Berger is a Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering within the College of Engineering at The Ohio State University, holding a courtesy appointment in the Department of Physics. He also serves as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tampere University in Finland. Berger received his B.S.E. in engineering physics, M.S.E., and Ph.D. (1990) in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His early career included positions at Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ (1990-1992), and as faculty in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Delaware (1992-2000). Since joining Ohio State University in 2000, he has undertaken several prestigious visiting roles, including sabbaticals at the Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany, and Cambridge Display Technology, Ltd. in Cambridge, United Kingdom (1999); IMEC in Leuven, Belgium (2008); Finnish Distinguished Professor at Tampere University of Technology (2014-2019); and Fulbright-Nokia Distinguished Chair in Information and Communications Technologies at Tampere University (2020-2022).

Berger's research specializations encompass quantum tunneling devices, printable semiconductor devices and circuits for Internet-of-Things applications, bioelectronics, novel semiconductor materials and devices, and applied physics. He has authored or co-authored over 240 refereed publications and presentations, delivered nearly 100 plenary, keynote, and invited talks, contributed to 5 book sections, and secured 25 issued patents with 3 pending from more than 60 disclosures. His scholarly impact is reflected in a Google Scholar H-index of 41. Berger has attracted substantial funding, exceeding $38.1 million from U.S. sources and €15.7 million from European sources, totaling over $54.9 million USD. Among his major honors are the NSF CAREER Award (1996), DARPA ULTRA Sustained Excellence Award (1998), Lumley Research Awards (2006 and 2011), Faculty Diversity Excellence Award (2009), Outstanding Engineering Educator Award from the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers (2014), and IEEE Region-2 Outstanding Engineering Educator Award (2023). He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE, 2011) for contributions to silicon-based resonant interband tunneling devices and circuits, and a Senior Member of the Optical Society of America. Berger has been actively involved in professional service, chairing the Columbus IEEE Electron Devices Society/Photonics Chapter, advising Ohio State’s IEEE student chapters, and serving on the IEEE EDS Board of Governors, including as Vice President of Strategic Directions. Furthermore, he has led humanitarian engineering initiatives, such as solar-powered LED lighting for remote schools in Haiti and Tanzania, and solar-powered desalination for the Wayúu people in Colombia.