S. James Allen, current Chair of the UCSB Physics Department, received a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from M.I.T. in 1965.  He was appointed Professor of  Physics and Director of the Quantum Institute at UCSB in 1991.Prior to that, he had been a member of technical staff at Bell Labs, where he was recognized as a “Distinguished Member of Technical Staff” and availed himself of a Bell Labs supported leave at the Royal School of Mines , Imperial College London.  Later he joined Bellcore, as District Research Manager of Solid State Physics Research.  He has also been an adjunct professor at Northeastern University and at Princeton University.   Professional service has included election as Member at Large of the Executive Committee of the Division of Condensed Matter Physics of the A.P.S. where he served on the Strategic Planning Committee and on the Nominating Committee.  He has also served on the Editorial Board of Physical Review.  In 1995 he won a Humboldt Senior Science Award and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

He has co-authored more than 180 publications on transport and terahertz excitations in semiconductor nano-structures, hot-electron dynamics, high temperature superconductivity, magnetism, superionic conductors, metal physics and clathrate inclusion compounds. He holds three patents.  Current research focuses on terahertz dynamics in semiconductor quantum structures far from equilibrium, phase coherent transport in superconductor-semiconductor heterostructures and magneto-electronics and spintronics in novel magnetic semimetal-semiconductor heterostructures.