Michael A. Zimmerman

Biography

Prof Zimmerman spent 14 years at Bell Labs, and rose to the highest technical level (top 1% of technical community). His area of expertise is polymer innovation and polymer processing, semiconductor packaging and electronic and optical materials. He subsequently started his own company (QLP, Inc.) by inventing a new liquid crystal polymer technology and developed products in the area of semiconductor packages, new printed circuit board materials, and revolutionary materials for replacing metals in automobiles. He developed strong collaborative relationships with Sumitomo Chemical, Dupont, Freescale Semiconductor, and General Motors, raised > $50M from Venture Capital firms and strategic partners, qualified the technology in several major applications, and sold the company to a multinational company (Interplex Industries). He has been teaching at Tufts for over 20 years, in the areas of materials science, manufacturing and finite element analysis and has developed new classes in the areas of polymer science and composite materials. He has developed projects for over 15 graduate students (MS and PhD), and has hired many of them. Currently he is involved in new funded research related to energy storage materials. He has collaborations with both the Electrical Engineering and Civil Engineering Departments.

Research Interest

Prof. Zimmerman's areas of expertise are in materials, processing, design for manufacture, computer simulations, new product ideas, and electronic packaging. He is an entrepreneur and visionary with extensive international work experience in Europe and Asia, understands the entrepreneurial and start-up world.