AVS Appoints Professor Eray Aydil the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology

New York, September 1, 2010 — The AVS Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Eray Aydil as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology (JVST), the flagship publication of the AVS, effective September 1, 2010. As Editor-in-Chief, he will oversee the editorial operations of both JVST A & B. Professor Aydil will succeed Professor Gerald Lucovsky, who has served as the JVST Editor-in-Chief since 1980.Eray is a Professor and the Executive Officer of the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department at the University of Minnesota and he holds the Ronald L. and Janet A. Christenson Chair in Renewable Energy. He received his B.S. degrees in chemical engineering and in materials science from the University of California, Berkeley, both in 1986. He completed his graduate research at the University of Houston under the supervision of Demetre Economou and received his Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering in 1991.

He then joined the AT&T Bell Laboratories as a Postdoctoral Member of the Technical Staff working with Richard Gottscho. At Bell Labs, he focused on developing and applying surface sensitive diagnostic techniques that can be used in the harsh conditions encountered in plasma etching and deposition reactors.

He joined the faculty of the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 1993 as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1998 and then to full Professor and Vice Chair of the Department in 2001.

At UCSB, he and his students pioneered the development of in situ techniques to monitor composition, dielectric properties, and surface coverage of films during plasma etching and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition of materials such as SiO2, fluorinated SiO2, Si3N4, hydrogenated amorphous Si and hydrogenated nanocrystalline Si.

In 2005, Eray joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department. His research is focused on solving technologically important and fundamental problems encountered in materials processing for applications in electronic and photovoltaic device manufacturing with emphasis on plasma etching and deposition, plasma modification of surfaces, and dye-sensitized and quantum dot solar cells.

He is interested in understanding thin film deposition and etching processes used in the synthesis of nanostructured materials and in manufacturing of integrated circuits and solar cells. He has authored and coauthored over 135 papers and holds 4 patents.

Eray has been an actively-involved member of AVS since he was a graduate student. He served on the editorial board of the JVST between 2004 and 2007. He was a member of the Plasma Science and Technology Division (PSTD) programming committee between 1999 and 2003 and again between 2006 and 2008.

He has served on the PSTD Executive Committee, first as a Member-at-Large between 1999 and 2003 and then as its Chair-Elect, Chair and Past-Chair in 2006, 2007 and 2008, respectively. He was the programming vice-chair of the AVS 56th International symposium in 2009 and he is currently the Chair of the AVS 57th International Symposium and Exhibition that will be held in Albuquerque during October 2010.

Eray received the Norman Hackerman Young Author Award of the Electrochemical Society, the National Young Investigator Award of the National Science Foundation, and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award in 1993, 1994 and 1997, respectively.

In 1999, he received the AVS Peter Mark Memorial Award “for pioneering work in the development and application of optical diagnostic techniques to understand chemistry and physics associated with plasma deposition of dielectric thin films.” He became a Fellow of the AVS in 2005.

He was awarded the 2009 Plasma Prize at the AVS 56th International Symposium in San Jose. The highest honor of the PSTD, the Plasma Prize is given each year to a researcher who has conducted outstanding research in science and technology of gas plasmas. He received the award for “pioneering work on the characterization of plasma species and their energy distributions in plasma assisted deposition and etching of materials.” He is a dedicated teacher; he has numerous teaching awards both at UCSB and at the University of Minnesota.

In naming Prof. Aydil as Editor-in-Chief, the AVS Board of Directors noted that he brings a breadth of knowledge and experience in research topics that cross-cut the various facets of AVS. The Board of Directors is very confident JVST will flourish under his dynamic leadership and critical editorial eye.