Geballe is Professor Emeritus of Applied Physics at Stanford University. He served as Chair of the Department of Applied Physics from 1975-1978 and as Director of the Center for Materials Research from 1977-1988. He received a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1949 and became a staff member and head of the low temperature physics department at Bell Laboratories, 1952-70.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is also a member of the American Chemical Society. His honors and awards include: the Oliver E. Buckley Solid State Physics Prize, awarded by the American Physical Society, 1970; Guggenheim Fellow, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, England, 1975; the Theodore and Sydney Rosenberg Professor of Applied Physics (Endowed Chair), Stanford, 1978-90; the first Bernd T. Matthias Memorial Award, 1989; and the Von Hippel Award, Materials Research Society, 1991.

He has served on various national committees for the National Research Council; the Presidential Advisory Committee on Superconductors; the President's National Commission on Superconductivity and the Department of Energy Council on Materials Science, 1988-present.

Dr. Geballe's research activities and interests are low temperature physics, including experimental studies of semiconductors, superconductivity and magnetism in oxides and intermetallic compounds.