John Balsbaugh Gruber is a highly regarded physics academic, and for more than five decades he groomed the next generation of physicists as a professor at universities all around the country. Notably, he has taught at San Jose State University, Portland State University, North Dakota State University, Washington State University, Iowa State University, Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Stanford University, and the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Gruber’s last role in academia prior to his retirement was as a research professor in the department of physics and astronomy at The University of Texas at San Antonio.
Dr. Gruber’s interest in physics was sparked in the ninth grade, when he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Sciences. Born in Hershey, Pennsylvania, he decided to pursue his undergraduate studies at nearby Haverford College, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in 1957. Subsequently, Dr. Gruber attended the University of California, Berkeley, earning a Ph.D. in 1961. At this point of his career, Dr. Gruber’s high level of proficiency was apparent to those in the industry, as evidenced by the NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship he received to advance his studies at the Institute of Technical Physics at Technische Universität Darmstadt in Germany.
A holder of numerous patents in laser science and technology, Dr. Gruber is the recipient of recognition from the United States Department of Defense, the U.S. Army, the Polish Academy of Sciences, The University of Chicago, the American Chemical Society, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, and many other research groups. His membership affiliations include the IEEE, the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, the Optical Society of Northern California, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, The New York Academy of Sciences, the North Dakota Academy of Science, the Oregon Academy of Science, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, the Council of Colleges of Arts & Sciences, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Pi Sigma, and Phi Sigma Iota. Today, he is still active in various committees for Rotary International.
Mr. Gruber was honored with inclusion in the following publications: Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Education, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, Who’s Who in the South and Southwest, Who’s Who in the West and Who’s Who in the World.
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