Rate My Professor Johan Alme

Johan Alme is Professor of Microelectronics in the Department of Physics and Technology at the University of Bergen. He completed his PhD at the University of Bergen from 2004 to 2008 with a thesis titled 'Firmware Development and Integration for ALICE TPC and PHOS Front-end Electronics,' focusing on the design of readout electronics for the ALICE Time Projection Chamber (TPC) and PHOton Spectrometer (PHOS). Since then, his research has centered on instrumentation for the ALICE experiment at CERN, where he has coordinated major upgrades including readout electronics for the TPC (2012-2016, with 216 Readout Control Unit 2 boards installed), the Inner Tracking System 2 (ITS2, 2016-2022, supervising three PhD students), the Forward Calorimeter prototype (FoCal, 2011-2012 FPGA development, ongoing for 2029 commissioning), and the Inner Tracking System 3 (ITS3) with flexible sensors. As head of the Microelectronics research group, Alme leads developments in detector readout electronics for high-radiation environments, including space instrumentation for ESA projects and the ASIM instrument on the International Space Station. The group also advances proton computed tomography (pCT) for cancer treatment using monolithic active pixel sensor integrated circuits (MAPS ICs) like ALPIDE, facilitating technology transfer from CERN to medical imaging. He serves as project leader for NORLHC-II, an infrastructure initiative supporting Norwegian contributions to CERN's ALICE and ATLAS experiments, and acts as local contact for ECFA Detector Research & Development groups, particularly on monolithic sensor ASICs.

In addition to research, Alme is Program Chair in Physics at the University of Bergen and an active educator, responsible for courses such as PHYS114 Basic Measurement Science and Experimental Physics, PHYS116 Signal and System Analysis, PHYS223 Digital Integrated Circuit Technology, PHYS299 Bachelor's Project in Physics, and PHYS298 Research Practice in Physics at CERN, established in 2024 for the CERN Technical Student Program. He has offered special curricula in Digital Design with VHDL and Radiation Effects in Electronics for master's students and supervises bachelor's theses at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. Alme received the Teachers' Award from Realistutvalget student union for 2023/24, and students he supervised won the NITO prize for best bachelor's thesis in spring 2023. His scholarly output includes key publications such as 'The ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC' (2008), 'Centrality Dependence of the Charged-Particle Multiplicity Density at Midrapidity in Pb-Pb Collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV' (2011), 'The ALICE TPC, a large 3-dimensional tracking device with fast readout for ultra-high multiplicity events' (2010), and contributions to ALICE physics results on particle production and correlations. He serves on the scientific committee for the Topical Workshop on Electronics for Particle Physics (TWEPP) since 2021, the technical program committee for IEEE Nordic Circuits and Systems Conference (NorCAS) since 2021, and Norway's evaluation committee for the best FPGA-related master's thesis since 2024. Alme has delivered popular science lectures on wireless communication, UiB-CERN collaboration, and microchips, and appeared in media discussing chip shortages and CERN work.