Vivek Kapila has dual appointment in the College of Engineering and the School of Sustainable Engineered Systems at the University of Arizona for coordinating large intedisciplinary projects with a focus on establishment of Centers of Excellence in Science & Engineering. He is also Sr. Member of Technical Staff at a local Small Business Concern, Eustathia, LLC. His primary research interests lie in experimetal and computational methods in colloidal chemistry, tribology, wafer/mask cleaning, chemical-mechanical planarization, and filtration studies. He has been at the forefront of wafer and photomask cleaning technologies through his research at the University of Arizona and at International SEMATECH. He was part of the team at SEMATECH that achieved world record single digit defect level on EUV mask blanks.

Earlier, he earned his PhD in Materials Science & Engineering from the University of Arizona. His dissertation work was focused on the modeling and simulations of self-assembly of hydrophobic alkylsilane coatings used in minimization/prevention of stiction failure of silicon based MEMS devices.

Vivek has an MS in Materials Science & Engineering from South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, Rapid City, SD and a BE degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Roorkee (now IIT-R), India.Vivek has also had brief appointments at Los Alamos National Laboratories, Los Alamos, NM and Micron Technology, Boise, ID.