Description

Harland Tompkins retired from full-time employment in 2001.  During his full-time employment, he was employed by General Electric Co., Bell Laboratories, the Idaho National Engineering Lab, and Motorola. He has consulted for the J. A. Woollam Co., in Lincoln NE and other companies since 2001.  He received the B.S. degree from the University of Missouri in 1960 and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1971.
 
He has written numerous journal articles in the reviewed technical literature, is the author of four books, and the editor of two books.  He has presented several lectures to the general public on the history of physics and chemistry
 
He is an Affiliated Professor of Physics at New Mexico State University at Las Cruces, NM and Adjunct Professor of Physics at University of Missouri, Columbia, MO.

He has been a member of the American Vacuum Society (AVS) since 1972 and is currently an Emeritus Fellow.  He was active in the Applied Surface Science Division, serving as Chairman twice, and in the Ohio and Arizona Chapters.  He served extensively as a Short Course Instructor for AVS from 1978 until 2005, and on the Education Committee as the Monograph Editor.