John R. Tower focuses on high-speed, charge-coupled devices (CCD) for imagers and cameras, aerospace applications, and high performance, backside-illuminated CMOS imagers for X-ray, ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared applications.

Tower began his career at RCA Advanced Technology, developing CCD technology for signal processing and imaging applications. After RCA was acquired by General Electric Aerospace, he was involved in developing imaging solutions for space applications.

Under his leadership, the Imaging Group has delivered thousands of imaging subsystems to the analytical instrument market, wafer-scale imagers and cameras for space imaging to the U.S. government, high-speed cameras for semiconductor inspection to international commercial customers, and R&D research to DARPA and other U.S. government agencies.

He has published 42 papers and has 12 issued U.S. patents. He is also the editor for Image Sensors, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices. Tower received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.