Josh H. Golden received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Cornell University in 1995, working under the tutelage of Frank DiSalvo and Jean Frechet.

His graduate research involved a combination of solid-state physics and chemistry and included the synthesis and analysis of nanocomposite materials comprising sub-nanometer metal wires, metal clusters, and other inorganic and organic materials.

Following graduate school, he worked as an R&D chemist at Cytec Industries (American Cyanamid) in Stamford, CT, in the Mining and Minerals Division. There, Josh worked on materials used in industrial-scale metal extraction and purification, leveraging his expertise in metal-ligand-polymer interactions.

Josh then moved back to the West Coast, where he initially worked on solid-state materials discovery, with an emphasis on phosphors, in collaboration with GE and others. During this period, his group identified and characterized new vanadate phosphor materials and made a curiosity-driven discovery of a blue phosphor with a unique crystal structure and luminescence mechanism.

After his work on phosphors, Josh established his career in Silicon Valley as a process development engineer and chemist at companies including Applied Materials. There, he worked on a variety of programs involving Raman spectroscopy, chemical mechanical polishing, copper interconnects, low-k dielectrics, process control, and wastewater treatment.

Josh concluded his chemistry, engineering, and product development career at Raychem Circuit Protection and R&D in Menlo Park, California, where he worked on thermally active (V=IR) metal-organic composite materials, antennas, low-k connectors, and adhesives.

Following his work in chemistry, engineering, and product development, Josh entered the field of intellectual property, writing patents for scientists at Applied Materials and IBM Almaden. He also enjoyed mentoring PhD students at the University of California, generating original student work involving Raman spectroscopy and nanomaterials, which ultimately became part of the students’ PhD theses.

Currently, Josh enjoys learning about and writing about climate, thermodynamics, and energy on his Substack. He subscribes to the Feynman style of learning by teaching others.