Harley T. Johnson is a Founder Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he has been a member of the faculty since 2001.  In 2024 he was named Acting Director of the new Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, a multi-$B public-private partnership and R&D campus that will open in 2026 in Chicago.  From 2019-2024 he served as the Associate Dean for Research in The Grainger College of Engineering, a role in which he supported research programs across the college and led an increase in research expenditures of more than 50% during his term of service.  As researcher, Johnson’s work addresses how mechanics (i.e., stress and strain) and the physical state of solids (e.g., impurities and defects) affect their quantum, electronic, and electromagnetic properties.  His work has applications in advanced nanoscale electronic devices, solar energy, microelectronics, sensing and detection, and materials processing.  He is PI and Director of the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (I-MRSEC), an $18M NSF center (2023-2029) focusing on fundamental materials science research in electronic, ionic, and quantum materials.  He received his graduate degrees from Brown University, and his undergraduate degree from Georgia Tech, and is a Fellow of both ASME and the Society of Engineering Science.