Thermoelectric Skutterudites

About Ctirad Uher

Ctirad Uher is a C. Wilbur Peters Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.He earned his BSc in physics with the University Medal from the University of New South Walesin Sydney Australia. He carried out his graduate studies at the same institution under Professor H.J. Goldsmid on the topic of Thermomagnetic effects in bismuth and its dilute alloys and receivedhis PhD in 1975. Subsequently Professor Uher was awarded the prestigious Queen ElizabethII Research Fellowship which he spent at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial ResearchOrganization (CSIRO) National Measurement Laboratory (NML) in Sydney. He then accepted apostdoctoral position at Michigan State University where he worked with Profs. W. P. Pratt P. A.Schroeder and J. Bass on transport properties at ultra-low temperatures. Professor Uher started his academic career in 1980 as an assistant professor of Physics at theUniversity of Michigan. He progressed through the ranks and became full professor in 1989. Thatsame year the University of New South Wales awarded him the title of DSc for his work on transportproperties of semimetals. At the University of Michigan he served as an associate chair ofthe Department of Physics and subsequently as an associate dean for research at the College ofLiterature Sciences and Arts. In 1994 he was appointed as chair of physics the post he held for thenext 10 years. Professor Uher has had more than 45 years of research described in more than 520 refereedpublications in the areas of transport properties of solids superconductivity diluted magnetic semiconductorsand thermoelectricity. In the field of thermoelectricity to which he returned duringthe past 25 years he worked on the development of skutterudites half-Heusler alloys modifiedlead telluride materials magnesium silicide solid solutions tetrahedrites and Molecular BeamEpitaxy (MBE)rown thin films forms of Bi2Te3-based materials. He has written a number ofauthoritative review articles and has presented his research at numerous national and internationalconferences as invited and plenary talks. In 1996 he was elected fellow of the American PhysicalSociety. Professor Uher was honored with the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the University ofPardubice in the Czech Republic in 2002 and in 2010 was awarded a named professorship at theUniversity of Michigan. He received the prestigious China Friendship Award in 2011.Professor Uher supervised 16 PhD thesis projects and mentored numerous postdoctoral researchersmany of whom are leading scientists in academia and research institutions all over the world.Professor Uher served on the Board of Directors of the International Thermoelectric Society. In20042005 he was elected vice president of the International Thermoelectric Society and during20062008 served as its president.