Richard Greene has been named a Distinguished University Professor—the highest academic honor bestowed by the University of Maryland. He will be recognized at the university’s annual Faculty and Staff Convocation on September 14, 2022.
Greene joined UMD as a professor in 1989 to lead the Center for Superconductivity Research (now called the Quantum Materials Center) in the Department of Physics as its founding director.
He is a pioneer in the study of superconductivity and the synthesis and study of advanced quantum materials. He discovered the first superconducting polymer, discovered several new quantum phenomena in complex materials and detected magnetic spin waves optically for the first time. Greene’s work has had a large impact on the fields of both materials science and physics.
Rick Greene and advisee Nick Poniatowski (B.S., '20)
He has published 435 articles that have been cited more than 33,000 times, mentored more than 20 students and postdocs, and received continuous funding from the National Science Foundation since 1993. Before joining UMD, Greene was a researcher at IBM.
He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The APS named its dissertation award for experimental condensed matter physics in his honor.
Greene earned his B.S. in physics from MIT in 1960 and his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1967.
Greene was honored along with six other UMD professors, including two from the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS): Dmitry Dolgopyat of Math and Zhanqing Li of Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science and the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center.
“These faculty members are exceptionally deserving of being named Distinguished University Professors,” said Amitabh Varshney, dean of UMD’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS). “I was proud to nominate them for consideration, and I celebrate and honor their inspirational commitment to CMNS and our students through their teaching, research and service.”
Dolgopyat, Greene and Li join more than 50 colleagues in CMNS who have been named Distinguished University Professors since 1980. Distinguished University Professors are faculty members who have been recognized nationally and internationally for the importance of their scholarly achievements. UMD’s president, along with a committee composed of the provost and seven faculty members—including several Distinguished University Professors—from diverse disciplines select the honorees each year.