David L. Staebler is an American electrical engineer.

He received his BSEE degree from Pennsylvania State University

Pennsylvania State University

The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...

 in 1962. The following year he was awarded an MSEE degree from the same institution. He became a member of the technical staff at RCA Laboratories in 1963. In 1970, he gained his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

. While primarily remaining at RCA, he did serve as visiting professor at the Instituto de Fisica e Quimica de Sao Carlos, Brazil 1974–1975. In 1979–1980, he was a visiting staff member at Laboratories RCA Limited in Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. He was appointed as head of the Kinematic Systems group at RCA Laboratories in 1980. He later worked for Thomson Consumer Electronics and was the manager of the Materials Science Branch at the National Renewable Energy Lab. He serves as a consultant to Nanergy Corporation.

Dr. Staebler has performed research investigations on photochromism

Photochromism

Photochromism is the reversible transformation of a chemical species between two forms by the absorption of electromagnetic radiation, where the two forms have different absorption spectra. Trivially, this can be described as a reversible change of colour upon exposure to light...

 in materials, electrochromism

Electrochromism

Electrochromism is the phenomenon displayed by some materials of reversibly changing color when a burst of charge is applied. Various types of materials and structures can be used to construct electrochromic devices, depending on the specific applications....

, storage of holograms in electro-optic crystals, plus amorphous silicon solar cells produced by discharge. In 1980 he worked with Christopher R. Wronski

Christopher R. Wronski

Dr. Christopher R. Wronski is a noted electrical engineer, now Professor Emeritus at Pennsylvania State University, noted for his pioneering research in photovoltaic cells including discovery of the Staebler–Wronski effect.Dr. Wronski received his Ph.D...

 to study light-induced metastable changes in the properties of hydrogenated amorphous silicon

Amorphous silicon

Amorphous silicon is the non-crystalline allotropic form of silicon. It can be deposited in thin films at low temperatures onto a variety of substrates, offering some unique capabilities for a variety of electronics.-Description:...

 (a-Si:H); now known as the Staebler–Wronski effect.