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Memorial Tributes, Volume 14
CHARLES M. WOLFE
1935–2008
Elected in 1991
“For fundamental achievements in the synthesis andcharacterization of ultrapure III-V semiconductors.”
BY ABE L. CROSS
SUBMITTED BY THE NAE HOME SECRETARY
CHARLES M. WOLFE, professor emeritus of electrical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, passed away on October 18, 2008, at the age of 72.
Charles Wolfe was born on December 21, 1935, in Morgantown, West Virginia, to parents Slidell Brown Wolfe and Mae Louise Wolfe. He received his bachelor of science and master of science degrees in electrical engineering from West Virginia University in 1961 and 1962. In 1965 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, he served from 1955 to 1958.
Dr. Wolfe was a staff member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory from 1965 to 1975, when he joined the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis. He was appointed as the Samuel C. Sachs Professor of Electrical Engineering in 1982 and served in that capacity until 1990. He became professor emeritus in 1998.
For his contributions to the development of high-purity gallium arsenide for microwave and optical device applications, Dr. Wolfe received an Electronics Division Award from the Electrochemical Society in 1978. Also in 1978 he was elected a fellow in the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
