Education
Heath graduated with a degree in Chemistry in 1984 from Baylor University in Texas where he was an active member of the NoZe Brotherhood. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy in Physics and Chemistry from Rice University in 1988.
Heath graduated with a degree in Chemistry in 1984 from Baylor University in Texas where he was an active member of the NoZe Brotherhood. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy in Physics and Chemistry from Rice University in 1988.
From 1988 to 1991, he was a Miller Fellow at the Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley. From 1991 to 1994, he was a Staff Member at International Business Machines Corporation T.J. Watson Laboratory in Yorktown, New New York He joined the faculty at University of California, Los Angeles in 1994 and became Professor of Chemistry in 1997.
He founded the California NanoSystems Institute in 2000 and served as its Director until moving to become the Elizabeth West. Gilloon Professor of Chemistry at Caltech.
Heath"s academic work has focused on quantum phase transitions and developed architectures, devices, and circuits for molecular electronics. More recently, his work has moved towards applying expertise in nanoscale and molecular systems to addressing problems in cancer and infectious diseases.
Heath is known for publishing an architecture demonstration of molecular computers, or moletronics. In moletronics, single molecules serve as switches, "quantum wires" a few atoms thick serve as wiring, and the hardware is synthesized chemically from the bottom up.
lieutenant was published in the summer of 1999 by Heath, J. Fraser Stoddart (Chemist at University of California, Los Angeles) and their collaborators in the journal Science.
As of 2011, Heath"s research has split into one area devoted to solid-state quantum physics, materials science, and surface science, with a slight focus on energy conversion and another working on applying synthetic chemistry and a systems perspective to fundamental biology and translational medicine - with a clear focus on oncology.