A lifetime of contributions to the world of semiconductors using the Czochralski invention

Over the course of my career, I have made numerous contributions related to semiconductor crystal growth and high performance optoelectronics over a vast region of the electromagnetic spectrum (ultraviolet to terahertz). In 2016 this cumulated in my receiving the Jan Czochralski Gold Medal award from the European Materials Research Society. This article is designed to provide a historical perspective and general overview of these scientific achievements, on the occasion of being honored by this award. These achievements would not have been possible without high quality crystalline substrates, and this article is written in honor of Jan Czochralski on the 100th anniversary of his important discovery.