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Very good! 20/20

Academic Career

During Lineberger’s third year in his undergraduate career, Lineberger took a class called “The Physical Basis for Electrical Engineering” that allowed him to rediscover his scientific passion for understanding nature on the atomic level. After taking the class that was at the time taught by professor John Hooper, Lineberger decided to cease all extracurricular activities in order to pursue a full time job at the Georgia Tech Engineering Experimental Station (analogous to to MIT’s Lincoln Laboratories). It was here when Lineberger began to perform his own work on the electrical, thermal, cohesive, and corrosion-resistance properties of gold and tungsten thin films to be used in the electronics industry.

With funding provided by the Western Electric Company, Lineberger was able to build and operate the vacuum system that he designed for his high school science fair project. From his time at Georgia Tech, Lineberger also became fond of working in a laboratory setting. Lineberger’s job with the Georgia Tech Engineering Experimental Station kept him occupied until senior year when he decided to attend graduate school at Georgia Tech to pursue a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering.

Lineberger completed his Ph.D. at Georgia Tech under the guidance of John Hooper and Earl McDaniel, an electrical engineering and physics professor. During his graduate school years from 1961 to 1964, Lineberger worked in an electrical engineering laboratory where he collaborated with Hooper and McDaniel to design an electron-ion crossed-beam apparatus. In 1965, Lineberger became an associate professor in the Electrical Engineering department at Georgia Tech where he taught modern physics and atomic collisions. About halfway into his graduate career, Lineberger discovered an institute created as a partnership between the National Bureau of Standards and the University of Colorado, Boulder. The institution’s name was JILA and it was a collaboration of the Astrophysics, Aerospace Engineering, Chemistry, and Physics Departments at the University of Colorado.

Since Lineberger worked as a research physicist in the U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory from 1965-1968, it was not until August 1968 when he began working at JILA. Lineberger worked on an experiment involving a flashlamp-pumped tunable dye laser developed by Peter Sorokin. Within a couple of weeks, Lineberger and his colleagues Jan Hall, Don Jennings, and Art Schmeltekopf, were capable of designing the first high-resolution tunable-laser photodetachment apparatus capable of producing adequate results. From 1970-1972, Lineberger acted as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Colorado and in 1972, he was promoted to the title of Associate Professor. As a new faculty member, Lineberger became so absorbed in his work that his marriage with Aileen ended in 1971.

Not shortly after, Lineberger was extended a tenure track position in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Colorado, Boulder. This occasion was rather unconventional since Lineberger came from an electrical engineering background; however, Lineberger was hired by the Department of Chemistry due to the praise of notable faculty members. In 1982, Carl Lineberger acted as a visiting professor to both Stanford University and the University of Chicago. From 1985-1986, Lineberger served as the chair for JILA. As of 1985 to present day, Lineberger is an E.U. Condon Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Colorado.

Scientific Contributions and Research

Scientific Contributions and Research (add onto Mitch's part):

The other main area of focus in Dr. Lineberger’s research is photoelectron imaging. Photoelectron imaging is an experimental technique that combines photoelectron spectroscopy and a photographic approach to yield images of the photoelectron probability distributions. The photoelectron distributions analyzed are of photoelectrons that become detached from gas-phase chemical systems. The experimental technique involves using pulsed laser and ion beams to shoot ions of interest at an imaging detector. From a static electric field generated by velocity-map imaging electrodes, photoelectrons are projected onto a detector and the corresponding photoelectron distributions are focused onto a longitudinal plane of the detector. The probability distributions are then developed by the accumulation of approximately 10⁵ single electron impacts. One motivation for developing the technique of photoelectron imaging is to use it as a quantum chemistry visualization tool.