John D. Cressler received a B.S. in physics from Georgia Tech in 1984 and both an M.S. and a Ph.D. in applied physics from Columbia University in 1987 and 1990, respectively. From 1984 to 1992 he was on the research staff at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, and from 1992 to 2002 on the engineering faculty at Auburn University. 

In 2002, he joined the faculty at Georgia Tech, where he is currently Regents Professor and Schlumberger Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Cressler and his team have published over 1000 scientific papers related to his research, and, to date, he has graduated 77 Ph.D. students. He is the co-author of Silicon-Germanium Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors, (2003), author of Reinventing Teenagers: the Gentle Art of Instilling Character in Our Young People (2004), editor of Silicon Heterostructure Handbook: Materials, Fabrication, Devices, Circuits, and Applications of SiGe and Si Strained-Layer Epitaxy (2006), author of Silicon Earth: Introduction to Microelectronics and Nanotechnology (2016), co-editor of Extreme Environment Electronics (2012), and author of the historical novels Emeralds of the Alhambra (2013), Shadows in the Shining City (2014), Fortune’s Lament (2018), and Merchants of Iniquity (2024). Cressler was elected Fellow of the IEEE in 2001 “for contributions to the understanding and optimization of silicon and silicon-germanium bipolar transistors.”