John O'Brien is the Executive Vice Dean for Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the Acting Executive Director of the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI).
John is managing the Institute as it continues its search for a new Executive Director. In assuming his new role, John will remain as Executive Vice Dean for Engineering, although he will be working full-time in his capacity as Acting ISI Executive Director. Prior to assuming the Acting Executive Director role at ISI, he had spent about 18 months at ISI as a resource to the faculty and staff of the institute.
Dr. O'Brien is Professor of Electrical Engineering-Electrophysics. He received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1991, from Iowa State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1993 and 1996, respectively. He joined USC in 1997 as Assistant Professor. In 1999 he received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and in 2000 he was awarded an NSF Career Award. John rose rapidly through the ranks and was promoted to Professor of Electrical Engineering in 2006. His research interests are in nanophotonics and photonic crystal devices. He is a senior member of IEEE.
