North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...
in his home state, where he earned an A.A. degree in 1958 and a B.S. degree in 1960, respectively. In 1965, he earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley with his thesis on ''Total Spin-Exchange Cross-Sections for Alkali Atoms from Optical Pumping Experiments''.
Career
After earning his Ph.D., Gibbs remained at U.C. Berkeley as an Acting Assistant Professor until 1967. He then joined Bell Labs in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey where he worked until 1980. During his work there he collaborated on numerous experiments, including research on optical energy transfer in crystals with Samuel L. McCall and
Steven Chu
Steven ChuNobel Prize winner and the United States Secretary of Energy. For one year during this period, 1975 to 1976, he was an exchange scientist at Philips in Eindhoven, Holland. He was also a visiting lecturer at Princeton University from 1978 to 1979.
In 1980 he moved to Tucson, Arizona to become a professor at the
Optical Sciences Center
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...
at the University of Arizona. Here he founded the ''Optical Circuitry Cooperative'' in 1984, which conducted research relevant to optical processing, funded jointly by industry leaders in optics and optoelectronics. He remained its director until 1991 when the role was given to his collaborator, Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian. Gibbs was able to concentrate more fully on his research, particularly his work with Dr.
Galina Khitrova
Galina Khitrova (1959 – June 4, 2016) was a Russian-American physicist and optical scientist known for her research on cavity quantum electrodynamics, excitons, nonlinear optics, quantum dots, and vacuum Rabi oscillations. She was a professor ...
(whom he married in 1986) and Dr. Stephan W. Koch on the quantum nano-optics of semiconductors. Gibbs became a professor emeritus in 2011, but continued his work until his death in 2012.
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
, Fellow
Asteroid Hyatt
The unusual main-belt asteroid
221628 Hyatt
221628 Hyatt, provisional designation ', is a background asteroid on an inclined, comet-like orbit in the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 26 December 2006, by Alex Gibbs, an American software ...
was named in his honor on 3 July 2012 (), just two months before he died. The asteroid was discovered by his son Alex Gibbs of the Catalina Sky Survey, who proposed the name to the
Minor Planet Center
The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
Function
...
Gibbs' first marriage was to Lethia, with whom he had a son, Alex, and a daughter, Vanetta. His second marriage was to Galina Khitrova, with whom he collaborated professionally. On September 3, 2012, Hyatt M. Gibbs died in France at the age of 74 from mesothelioma complications.