David L. Staebler *70

David died Jan. 1, 2025, in Sunbury, Pa., at the age of 84.

He was born April 25, 1940. After graduating from Penn State in 1962 with an electrical engineering degree, David joined RCA Laboratories. In 1970, he earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton.

He served as visiting professor at the Instituto de Fisica e Quimica de Sao Carlos, Brazil from 1974 to 1975. From 1979 to 1980, he was a visiting staff member at Laboratories RCA Limited in Zurich. He became head of the kinematic systems group at RCA Laboratories in 1980. He later worked for Thomson Consumer Electronics, and was the manager of the materials science branch at the National Renewable Energy Lab. He served as a consultant to Nanergy Corporation.

David performed research investigations on photochromism in materials, electrochromism, storage of holograms in electro-optic crystals, plus amorphous silicon solar cells produced by discharge. In 1980, he worked with Christopher R. Wronski to study light-induced metastable changes in the properties of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H, now known as the Staebler–Wronski effect.

David is survived by his wife of 63 years, Betty; his daughters, Laurie and Lisa; and grandchildren Taylor, Michael, and Lucas.

Graduate alumni memorials are prepared by the APGA.