ECE Seminar: Professor Mark Horenstein

ECE Seminar: Professor Mark Horenstein Boston University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Light refreshments will be served outside of PHO 339 at 3:45 pm. The Contribution of Surface Potential to Diverse Problems in Electrostatics Abstract: The discipline of electrostatics is generally subdivided into different subject categories. Some areas comprise the science of “good electrostatics” use electrostatic charge for a desirable purpose. Such areas may include, for example, industrial manufacturing, electrophotography, printing, surface modification, bio-electrostatics, purposeful tribo-electrification, EHD, MEMS, and medicinal aerosols. Other areas make up the field of “bad electrostatics,” where charge is undesirable. Some of the latter may include such topics as hazardous discharges, ESD, health effects, unwanted tribo-electrification, common “static cling”, and lightning. A glance at the Table of Contents for the proceedings of this conference, other IOP conferences of the past, and probably most all other conference on electrostatics show that papers are grouped into these traditional areas. Electrostatics also shows up in seemingly strange places that do not fall into these traditional categories. For example, electrostatics plays a role in flea mitigation, cosmetic hair restoration, bee pollination, musical instruments, the Great Dust Bowl of the 1930’s, and fruit fly monitoring. One common thread that occurs in most all areas of electrostatics, whether traditional or not is the concept of the surface potential. A surface potential develops whenever static charge resides on the outer surface of an insulating layer that covers a conducting plane. This form of charge separation plays a role in such processes as plastics and textile manufacturing, hydrocarbon transport, high-voltage insulation, hazardous discharges, measurement methods, dust mitigation, and even parachutes. This talk will review the role of surface potential as it relates to these and other areas of electrostatics, covering the propagating brush discharge, peeling force on an insulating sheet, potential build up along a moving web, electrostatic biasing effects in MEMS, non-contacting voltmeters, open gate FETs, and maximum charge on a woven fabric. Speaker Bio: Mark N. Horenstein is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University, where he has been on the faculty since 1979. He has worked in numerous areas related to electrostatics, including instrumentation and measurement, discharges, applications and theory of corona, MEMS devices, charge and voltage sensors, dust particle dynamics, electrostatic dust removal, and high-voltage insulation. Prior to coming to B.U., he worked at Spire Corporation in the area of high-voltage pulsed power. He is the author of two text books, one about electronics, the other on the subject of engineering design. He is the author of two book chapters and has authored or co-authored over 50 journal and conference papers. He holds five U.S. patents in areas related to electrostatics. In 2013, Prof. Horenstein was named International Fellow by the European Working Party - Static Electricity in Industry. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, member and past president of the Electrostatics Society of America, and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Electrostatics, a position he has held since 2001. He earned his Ph.D. and S.B. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his M.S. degree from the University of California at Berkeley, all in electrical engineering. When not teaching or working in the electrostatics lab, he may often be found sailing the waters around Boston.