Prof. Dr. Steven Johnson

Prof. Dr.  Steven Johnson

Prof. Dr. Steven Johnson

Full Professor at the Department of Physics
Head of Institute for Quantum Electronics

ETH Zürich

Institut für Quantenelektronik

HPT D 15

Auguste-Piccard-Hof 1

8093 Zürich

Switzerland

Additional information

Research area

Steven Johnson's research primarily focuses on the atomic-scale motion of materials that have been suddenly and strongly kicked out of equilibrium. He has a particular interest in understanding how to change the properties of materials using such perturbations to change microscopic symmetries.

Steven Johnson is since 2020 full professor of physics at the Institute for Quantum Electronics in the Physics Department.  He currently holds a joint appointment with the Paul Scherrer Institute, where he heads the experimental laser group at the SwissFEL x-ray free-electron laser.

He was born in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, in 1975. He obtained a BSc in mathematics and physics from  Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA, USA, in 1997. In 2002 he earned his PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. From 2003-2011 Steven Johnson worked as a staff scientist at the Paul Scherrer Institute (Swiss Light Source). From 2011 until 2017 he was a tenure-track assistant professor at ETH Zurich, and asociate professor from 2017 to 2020. 

Membership

Since Membership
2017 Member of the Strategy Commisison for the Physics Department of ETH Zurich
2016 Member Proposal Review Panel for the LCLS free electron laser
2015 Member of the Admissions Committee for the Master's Programme for the Physics Department of ETH Zurich
2012 Member Proposal Evaluation Panel for FERMI@ELETTRA
2009 Member of the Swiss Physical Society
2000 Member of the American Physical Society

Honours

Year Distinction
2001 Advanced Light Source Doctoral Fellow
1997 (U. S.) National Science Foundation Graduate Student Fellow

Course Catalogue

Spring Semester 2025

Number Unit
402-0528-12L Ultrafast Methods in Solid State Physics
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