Vice Dean, Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Interim Department Chair
Affiliated Faculty
Kurt Becker is Vice Dean for Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship at NYU Tandon and a Professor of Applied Physics and of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. He earned a Diplom in Physik and Dr. rer. nat degree from the Universität Saarbrücken, Germany in 1978 and 1981, respectively. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the National Academy of Inventors, and the recipient of the Thomas Edison Patent Award (2001), the SASP Erwin Schrödinger Medal (2010), and the New York City & State Sustainability and Environmental Impact Award (2017). He also holds an honorary
Professorship at the Leopold Franzens Universität Innsbruck, Austria.
As a physicist, Becker worked extensively in the area of low-temperature plasma physics and technology and published more than 230 peer-reviewed papers. He pioneered the field of microplasmas and holds numerous patents on the stabilization of atmospheric-pressure plasmas and their technological applications.