Cartwright named UB vice provost for strategic initiatives

Alexander N. Cartwright

Alexander N. Cartwright of Williamsville, professor of electrical engineering in the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has been appointed UB's vice provost for strategic initiatives, a new position in which he will serve as the point person in the Provost's Office for the UB 2020 strategic strengths initiatives.

As vice provost for strategic initiatives, Cartwright will be responsible for building the research infrastructure and collaborative efforts across multiple strategic strengths, as well as for special UB initiatives.

Cartwright said he plans to continue teaching and working in his lab - the Laboratory for Advanced Spectroscopic Evaluation - in addition to fulfilling his new administrative duties.

"Teaching and research are essential parts of the role of a professor," he said.

Cartwright has been a UB faculty member since 1995. His current research interests include ultrafast spectroscopy of the optical properties of semiconductor nanostructures, development of hybrid inorganic and organic materials and device structures for solar cells, design and fabrication of biological and chemical sensors, and development of methods for optical nondestructive testing of stress and strain for assessing device reliability.

He serves as a director of the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, director of UB's National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) in "Biophotonics: Materials and Applications" and is a co-director of the Electronics Packaging Laboratory.

An adjunct faculty member in the Department of Physics in the UB College of Arts and Sciences, he is a member of the Center for Spin Effects and Quantum Information in Nanostructures and the Center for Unified Biometrics and Sensors.

He has won numerous prestigious research awards, among them the Department of Defense Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award and the National Science Foundation CAREER award, as well as UB's Reifler Award.

In addition to demonstrated research excellence, he is a recipient of a 2002 SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Cartwright earned bachelor's and doctoral degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Iowa.