Dr. Mario Lanza joined KAUST in 2020 as an associate professor of materials science and engineering, bringing expertise in complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology through his incorporation of two-dimensional (2D), layered materials and innovations in memristive devices. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at KAUST while teaching full-time as an associate professor of materials science and engineering at the National University of Singapore. Previously he taught at the Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials, Soochow University, China. Dr. Lanza has published over 200 research articles in leading journals such as Nature, Science and Advanced Electronic Materials, and participated as a plenary, keynote, tutorial and invited speaker in over 150 conferences worldwide. He is a distinguished lecturer of the Electron Devices Society (IEEE-EDS), editor-in-chief of the journal Microelectronic Engineering (Elsevier), and serves on the board of many other journals and conferences, including IEEE-IEDM and IEEE-IRPS. He has received multiple funding projects from major entities such as the European Union and National Natural Science Foundation of China, holds four registered patents, and is the recipient of several international awards.​

Professor Lanza is recognized as a leading scholar on the study of hexagonal boron nitride(h-BN) and other ultra-thin dielectrics for electronic devices (SiO2, HfO2, Al2O3). Hisresearch aims to enhance the performance of silicon microchips and integrated circuitsusing 2D materials with outstanding electronic, thermal, chemical, physical and opticalproperties, with special emphasis placed on memristive crossbar arrays and their use inbuilding artificial neural networks. To facilitate his research, he utilizes nanoelectroniccharacterization of multiple materials and devices using scanning probe microscopy (SPM). ​