Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Yale University
Udo D. Schwarz graduated in 1989 from the University of Basel, Switzerland, receiving his Ph.D. in physics from the same institution in 1993. Subsequently, he continued his work as a staff scientist at the Institute of Applied Physics of the University of Hamburg, Germany, where completed his “habilitation” (German accreditation degree for lecturers) in 1999. In 2001, Prof. Schwarz moved to the Materials Science Department of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Since mid-2002, he works as an associate professor at Yale’s Mechanical Engineering Department. His research interests are in nanomechanics, nanotribology, and the local measurement of atomic-scale interactions including high-resolution atomic-scale imaging. More specifically, he uses scanning probe microscopy techniques (predominantly scanning force microscopy) to study problems in contact mechanics on the nanometer scale, friction, adhesion, lubrication, and the physics of dielectrics, semiconductors, and metals.