- Professor Travis Anderson, Ph.D., is a renowned expert in semiconductor fabrication.
- He mentors five UF doctoral students, advancing high-power, energy‑efficient devices.
- He continues to work with his mentor, Fan Ren, Ph.D.
Travis Anderson knew he would grow up to be an engineer after solving a stone crab mystery in the sixth grade.
Growing up in Miami, he loved fresh — and expensive — stone crab claws and noticed they were sold in sizes from medium to colossal. The mystery: What was the best value? The forum: The science fair.
“I was able to calculate the actual price per pound of crab meat compared to the price per pound of whole claw and show that there was a specific size that had an optimal value. As a bonus, I got to eat a lot of stone crab, and it won second place in Dade County,” he said.
As he grew older, chemical engineering came calling, and he enrolled at the Georgia Institute of Technology and graduated with his bachelor’s degree.
“I really felt like with a degree in chemical engineering I would be able to do anything I wanted in the future,” he said.
That “anything” turned out to be semiconductors.
Later, he earned his Ph.D. from UF, where he was mentored by Fan Ren, Ph.D. After graduation, he took a position at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. and stayed for 15 years.
He kept in touch with his friends and professors at UF and by 2024, the nostalgic lure of Gainesville was too much to resist. He and his family packed up and returned.
These days, the science fair veteran — who still loves stone crabs — serves as a professor in the University of Florida’s Department of Chemical Engineering. He is a renowned expert in semiconductor fabrication and spends much of his time in his state-of-the-art lab mentoring five graduate students.
In this Q&A, Anderson discusses students, semiconductors and, of course, seafood.
Q: Who inspires you in your work?
Dr. Ren has been the best mentor ever. He is a giant in our research field, and his work ethic and productivity has been a guiding light throughout my career. I have also drawn heavily on his experience moving from the national lab environment to the academic community to help me navigate this transition.
When I joined Dr. Ren’s group, I transitioned from working on silicon-based microfluidics to wide-bandgap compound semiconductor devices using gallium nitride, which was an emerging material at the time. I really found a home and have stayed in that community ever since.
Q: What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
Dr. Ren really emphasized being accountable for your work as well as being a team player, so the group gets the job done. In other words, be the problem solver and not the problem finder. That attitude really resonated with me and has shaped my entire career.
Q: Why are semiconductors so important?
While you typically think of a semiconductor as a silicon-based computer chip, the reality is that a broad range of semiconductor materials and devices impact all aspects of modern life and has a real impact, if you know where to look. Next-generation semiconductors such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride are everywhere in consumer technology – LED solid-state lighting, 5G base stations, advanced radar systems, power conversion in electric vehicles and even laptop/phone chargers.
All these materials will play a key role in future technologies by enabling energy-efficient power conversion and thermal management in data centers, future 6G (and beyond) communications and electronics for extreme environments.
Q: What do you enjoy most about being a faculty member?
Working with students makes me a better engineer. It’s been a very rewarding experience watching their knowledge grow – whether it is Ph.D. students presenting their qualifying exam or undergraduates who email me to tell me how the skills they learned in my class are being used in their internship.
Q: What advice do you have for your students?
The most important thing is to manage the work-life balance. That means learning time management and how to work smarter and more efficiently because it’s important to disconnect and enjoy life as well. It’s really important to compartmentalize, so in your downtime you can focus 100% of your attention on family, friends and personal hobbies. Spending every weekend in the lab isn’t sustainable.
Q: What do you do during your downtime?
My favorite hobby is fishing and being on the water. Any downtime I have is spent on the water – whether it’s in the Gulf at Cedar Key, a lake or just relaxing in the pool at home.
When I was growing up (back before GPS, chart plotters, smartphones and widespread cell service), my dad and I would go out in the Everglades backcountry in our little Gheenoe, with little more than a map and compass to navigate. There were some wild experiences and encounters with alligators and other local wildlife.
One of the things that is on my bucket list is to paddle the Wilderness Waterway, which is a 99-mile canoe trail from Everglades City to Flamingo.
Q: What’s your favorite food?
There is nothing better than fresh fish off my boat, but I also can’t get enough of Publix subs and fried chicken.