Martin Pope

Martin Pope ( born August 22, 1918 in New York City ) is an American chemist. He is a pioneer in molecular semiconductors.

Pope comes from Jewish- Polish immigrants from, grew up in the Lower East Side and studied at the City College of New York with a bachelor 's degree in 1939. During World War II he worked at Columbia University in the environment of the Manhattan Project and served as a lieutenant in the Army Air Force in the Pacific. After returning to New York he worked in the Balco Laboratories Research on thin films. He has a doctorate in 1951 at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in chemistry. 1951 to 1956 he was Assistant Technical Director of Balco Research Laboratories. In 1956 he went to New York University to the Radiation and Solid State Physics Laboratory ( RSSL ), where he was professor of chemistry and 1983 until his retirement in 1988 was a director.

In 1960 he developed ohmic electrode contacts for charge carrier injection into organic crystals and they observed electroluminescence in anthracene 1963. This and other work of his group formed the basis for organic light emitting diodes (OLED).

In 2006 he received the Davy Medal. He has been a visiting professor in China, the USSR and Egypt (Alexandria ).

He married in 1946 Lillie Pope, born Bellin, and has two daughters. Lillian Pope ( born 1918 ) is a well-known developmental psychologist, especially for children with learning disabilities.

Writings

• With Charles E. Swenberg Electronic processes in organic crystals, Oxford University Press, 1982, reprint 1992 Electronic Processes in Organic Crystals and Polymers