Renowned Space Scientist Named ECE Department Chair

Armour College of Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology has hired renowned British space scientist and semiconductor engineer Anna Barnett to be its new Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering chair, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and the endowed Motorola Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. 

“Professor Barnett is innovative, creative, and exemplary in all that she does; this includes her pedagogy, research, and university leadership. I could not be more excited to support Barnett’s goal of leading the ECE department into an exciting future in which the department is a centerpiece of interdisciplinary research and education modeled after her own activities, a future in which the department’s impact matches its excellence,” says Interim Armour College Dean Kevin Cassel. 

Barnett, who has two doctorates and was previously associate vice president for research at University of Sussex in England, is excited to join Illinois Tech.  

“I can’t wait to get started—Illinois Tech is an extraordinary university with a remarkable history and a tremendous future ahead of it. The national strategic shift in thinking toward American technological independence and domestic production of advanced technologies, together with Illinois Tech’s strategic position in the Midwest as an institution of major national and international importance, provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Illinois Tech to play an unprecedentedly important leadership role on the national stage,” says Barnett. “Together in the ECE department, Armour College, and across Illinois Tech, we will capitalize on this opportunity by working with our academic, industrial, and government partners across Chicago, the state of Illinois, and beyond.” 

A noted polymath, autodidact, and advocate of alternative education, Barnett is a strong believer in Illinois Tech’s research and education mission. 

“The transformative power of university education in a non-traditional context has major significance to me. I am a first-generation scholar from a rural background. As a child, I did not expect to go to university. As ECE department chair, I will ensure that ECE is for all, open to all, and supportive of everyone. Universities are not just buildings; they are communities of individuals with hopes, dreams, and feelings,” she says. “Frank W. Gunsaulus was an American pioneer of alternative education, and I look forward to helping shape the next generation of American university education through Illinois Tech to the benefit of our students, staff, and faculty, the wider community, and the USA as whole.” 

Barnett’s research at Illinois Tech will focus on space exploration, semiconductors, and the interaction of radiation with matter. She is already the world’s foremost expert on novel compound semiconductor radiation detectors and instrumentation, with her work so far having been motivated primarily by the need to develop next-generation UV, X-ray, γ-ray, electron, and neutron instrumentation for space and planetary science. 

The materials science, semiconductor physics, and technologies that she has developed are also applicable in many other fields and applications, including clean energy generation, mining, health care, and defense and security. At Illinois Tech, she is planning to continue the same intellectually inclusive multidisciplinary approach that has been her trademark style throughout her career.   
“Why be constrained by traditional subject boundaries?” she asks. “Wherever I can add value through my research and expertise, help people, and improve life, I will be there.” 

Barnett is an elected fellow of numerous learned societies, including, but not limited to, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (the older sibling of the IEEE), the Institute of Physics, and the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacture, and Commerce. In 2016 she won the $130,000 Leverhulme Prize for Engineering, one of the world’s most prestigious academic awards.