Jim Harris received B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He is currently the James and Ellenor Chesebrough Professor, Emeritus of Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics and Materials Science. He and his PhD students have done seminal work in numerous fields, notably the development of GaAs materials and associated electrical and optical devices. His current research interests include 3D nanostructured materials for the control of light, development of a retinal prosthesis, novel high-efficiency multi-junction solar cells, laser driven electron accelerator (SLAC on a Chip), and VCSELs and SPADs for facial recognition and LIDAR.

He has been the principal PhD supervisor for 138 students, 25 of whom have become faculty members and 37 whom he has mentored and collaborated with as founders of startup companies. He is a Fellow of IEEE, APS, OSA and MRS. He has more than 1100 publications in refereed scientific journals, 14 book chapters, editor of 3 books and inventor of 31 issued US patents. He has received numerous prestigious awards, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2011.