AVS Awards

AWARDS ASSEMBLY & RECEPTION

The AVS Awards Assembly will be held on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 6:15 p.m. in Ballroom B of the Hynes Convention Center to be followed immediately by an Awards Reception in the Back Bay Ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel. This year, AVS honors the following awardees:

Miquel Salmeron, Medard W. Welch AwardSeizo Morita, Albert Nerken AwardDaniel Auerbach, Gaede-Langmuir AwardSergei Kalinin, Peter Mark Award

The newly elected AVS Fellows

The 2008 AVS Graduate Student AwardeesMEDARD W. WELCH AWARD

The Medard W. Welch Award was established in 1969 to commemorate the pioneering efforts of M.W. Welch in founding and supporting AVS. It is presented to recognize and encourage outstanding research in the fields of interest to AVS. The award consists of a cash award, a struck gold medal, a certificate, and an honorarylectureship at a regular session of the International Symposium.

Dr. Miquel Salmeron, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, “for seminal contributions to the development of surface characterization techniques usable in a variety of environments and their application to catalysis, tribology andrelated surface phenomena.”

Miquel Salmeron is a Senior Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory(LBNL), and Scientific Director of the Imaging Facility of the Molecular Foundry, theNanoscience Research Center in Berkeley. He is also Adjunct Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department of the University of California at Berkeley. His work spans several areas of surface science, including structure, reactivity, wetting and friction phenomena, with emphasis in the molecular level.

He studied Physics at the University of Barcelona in Spain, and obtained a Ph.D. at theUniversidad Autonoma of Madrid in 1975. Following postdoctoral work at the LBNL he held a joint appointment as a professor of physics at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas. During this period he studied growth of metals on metals using electron spectroscopy and He atomscattering. In 1984 Dr. Salmeron moved to the LBNL, where he developed a research program on surface phenomena based on the application of the recently invented Scanning Tunneling and Atomic Force Microscopes (STM, AFM), which he applied to study diffusion of atoms and molecules, including S, CO, and water on Pt, Re, Ni,Ru and Pd. He discovered the enormous enhancement of diffusivity of water when itformed dimers. He unveiled the nature of active sites in many surface reactions, including water formation from O and H, H2 dissociation, and others. He has made major contributions to the understanding of atomic level phenomenaimportant in tribology, the science of friction, adhesion, and wear, showing how energy losses in friction are connected with elementary excitationprocesses, including phonons, molecular deformations (gauche defects, tilts), and creation of surface point defects.

Dr. Salmeron consistently applies theoretical methods, developed with colleague theorists in his group and with collaborators in institutions worldwide, to help interpret STM images. His work emphasizes the importance of interpretingimages with the help of calculations.

Dr. Salmeron pioneered the development of novel instrumentation that opened the way for studies of surfaces under environmental conditions of pressure and temperature, in humid environments and in chemical reactors. These include high pressure STM and Ambient Pressure Photoelectron Spectroscopy (APPES). He used these to determine the structure of surfaces under reaction conditions, the melting of ice near the triple point and the preferential segregation of anions at the surface of aqueous solutions.

Dr. Salmeron has pioneered the application of nanoscale imaging methods to study wetting phenomena of liquids, including water, perfluorinated lubricants, liquid crystals and others. In the case of alkali halides he showed how water adsorbs and solvates first the ions at the step edges and later in the rest of the surface. Dr. Salmeron has published over 350 articles and imparted numerous talks in Academia,Industry and International Meetings. His papers have received more than 10,500 citations. He was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1996 and of AVS in 2003. He serves in the Editorial Board of Surface Science andTribology Letters.

ALBERT NERKEN AWARD

The Albert Nerken Award was established in 1984 by Veeco Instruments, Inc. in recognition of its founder, Albert Nerken, a founding member of AVS, his early work in the field of high vacuum and leak detection and contributions to the commercial development of the instrumentation. It is presented to recognize outstandingcontributions to the solution of technological problems in areas of interest to AVS. The award consists of a cash award, a certificate, and an honorary lectureship at a regular session of the International Symposium.

Dr. Seizo Morita, Osaka University, “for the development of room-temperature, non-contact atomic force microscopy technologies andapplications.”

Seizo Morita is Professor, Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering, and Director, Low Temperature Center, atOsaka University, Japan.

He completed his B.S. in 1970 and his Ph.D. research in 1975, in Physics at Osaka University, where he performed graduate work on LOphonon assisted cyclotron resonance. He was a Research Associate (1975-1987) and an Associate Professor (1987-1988) at Tohoku University, studying submillimeter-wave response in theJosephson junctions and the Anderson localization below 100 mK. From the mid-1980s, he started to develop the scanning tunneling microscopy and soon changed to atomic force microscopy (AFM). He was a Professor at Iwate University (1988-1989) and then moved to Hiroshima University (1989-1996), where heinvestigated the phase transition of microscopic negative charges on thin insulators and the two dimensional nature of atomic-scale friction using modified ultra high vacuum (UHV) AFMs in air. From 1992 he started to develop AFMs to achieve true atomic resolution. Then he went to work on non-contact (NC) AFM using the frequencymodulation detection method. He was the first person to observe atomic-scale defectsand their motion on InP(110) by NC-AFM (1995). Since 1996 he has been a professor atOsaka University, where he organized the first international conference on NC-AFM (1998).

The main part of his work done with collaborators in Osaka University is atom manipulation and chemical identification on semiconductor surfaces using UHV-AFMs at room temperature (RT) and at low temperature (LT); He established the basic technologies and made clear the mechanisms of single atom identification, followed by interchange manipulation of selected heterogeneous atom species, and assembly of designed complex nanostructures consisting of multi atom species at RT. With the use of a LT UHV-AFM, reproducible vertical atom manipulation (extraction and deposition) (2003) and site-by-site lateral atom manipulation of semiconductor atoms (2005) have been carried out successfully. With use of a RT UHV-AFM, the well-controlled vacancy-mediated lateral manipulation of Si adatoms on Si(111)-(7x7) has been achieved and its mechanism has been made clear as tip-enhanced thermally activated hopping (2007). A novel phenomenon has been discovered of atom interchange lateral manipulation at RT that can interchange embedded and intermixed heterogeneous atoms with each other. Consequently, substituted Sn atoms with adjacent Ge atoms have been interchanged oneby-one, and finally embedded atom letters composed of 19 Sn atoms have been used to spell out “Sn” (the symbol for tin) at RT on the Ge(111)-c(2x8) substrate (2005). The details of force spectroscopy between the tip-apex atom and a surface atom have been also studied. Hence, identification of atoms at RT has been successfully carried out on semiconductor surfaces based on site-specific force spectroscopy (2007).

He has published more than 200 papers, nine books and 16 book chapters. His work has been previously recognized by the 8th Surface Science Society Award (The Surface Science Society of Japan) (2003) and the 52nd Japanese Society of Microscopy Award (Setou Award) (2007). He established the committee for Utilization of Scanning Probe Microscopy in Japan Technology Transfer Association (JTTAS) (1992) and the 167th committee on Nano-Probe Technology in the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) (1997).

GAEDE-LANGMUIR AWARD

The Gaede-Langmuir Award was established in 1977 by an endowing grant from Dr. Kenneth C.D. Hickman. It is presented to recognize and encourage outstanding discoveries and inventions in the sciences and technologies of interest to AVS. The award is conferred biennially as a suitable candidate may be identified. It consists of acash award, a commemorative plaque stating the nature of the award, and an honorary lectureship at a regular session of the International Symposium.

Dr. Daniel Auerbach, GRT, Inc., “for contributions to the understanding of the dynamics of gas-surface interactions using molecular beamscattering techniques.”

Daniel Auerbach is currently Chief Technology Officer of GRT Inc., a small Santa Barbara based company working on technology for the conversion of natural gas into liquid fuels and high value chemicals. GRT is particularly interested in developing technology to deal with “stranded gas”, i.e. gas that is too remote from natural gas markets or is present in fields that are too small for conventional technologies tobe economically viable.

Before joining GRT, Auerbach worked for many years in the microelectronics and computer industry, initially for IBM and later for Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. At IBM Auerbach served for 10 years as Department Group Manager of the Science and Technology Department the IBM Almaden Research Center. This department made many important contributions to science and to IBM technology, including the first fabrication of structures by manipulation of individual atoms, broad ranging contributions to surface science and particularly chemical dynamics at surfaces, the development of the loosely coupled parallel computer paradigm and the first application to molecular dynamics simulations, record holding high temperature superconductors, development of the first giant magneto resistance (GMR) sensor for HDD applications, and development of resists and other key materials for microelectronics applications.

When IBM sold its hard disk drive (HDD) business to Hitachi, Auerbach joined the newventure. There, his primary responsibilities included research in hard disk drive architecture, signal processing and data integrity, and application of the HDDs in new areas such as consumer electronics.

Auerbach holds a Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of Chicago. Before joiningIBM in 1978, he served on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University. He is known world wide for his scientific research in the area of surface science and chemical dynamics. Auerbach is perhaps best known as a pioneer in the application of molecular-beam and laser-spectroscopic techniques to understanding of the microscopic details of chemical dynamics at surfaces. His research interests also include information storagesystems, the design of parallel computers, and chemical dynamics.

PETER MARK MEMORIAL AWARD

The Peter Mark Memorial Award was established in 1979 in memory of Dr. Peter Markwho served as Editor of the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology from 1975 to 1979. The award is presented to a young scientist or engineer (35 years of age or under) for outstanding theoretical or experimental work, at least some of which must have been published in JVST.

The award consists of a cash award, a certificate, and an honorary lectureship at a regular session of the International Symposium.

Dr. Sergei Kalinin, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, “for pioneering work in the area of nanoelectromechanics and local properties at

Surfaces.”

Sergei V. Kalinin is currently a research staff member at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and co-theme leader for Scanning Probe Microscopy at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at ORNL (since 2007), following a Eugene P. Wigner fellow appointment at ORNL (2002-2004). He is also Adjunct Associate Professorat the Department of Materials Sciences and Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He completed his Ph.D. in Materials Science at the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. His previous undergraduate and graduate work was completed in Materials Science at Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia (M.S. summa cum laude in 1998).

Sergei started his scientific career in high school working on rheological properties andthe dissipation of surface layers in aqueous solution of biologically active macromolecules. As a MS student in Moscow (1992-1996), he was actively involved in research on magnetic and semiconductor nanoparticle synthesis using theinorganic sol-gel method. A significant part of his research was focused on modeling and spectroscopic studies of fractal particle evolution in solutions. His interest in Scanning Probe Microscopy started when he was a graduate student at University of Pennsylvania working on electromechanical and Kelvin probe imaging of ferroelectric materials and transport phenomena in polycrystalline oxides and carbon nanotubes.

The focus of his current research is the interplay between electromechanical, transport, and mechanical phenomena in inorganic and biological systems on the nano- and ultimately atomic scales. While the fact that “small is different” is well known for optical, magnetic, and electronic phenomena, electromechanics and coupling between electromechanics and other functional properties on the nanoscale provides a new, and almost unexplored, area of research. The examples range from new forms of electromechanical coupling emerging on the nanoscale, such as surface flexo and piezoelectricity or unusual polarization orderings in low dimensional ferroelectrics, to complex phase separated materials. This is mirrored by biological systems, in which chemical and biochemical transformation pathways on the molecular, subcellular, and cellular levels proceed through an endlessly fascinating series of electrochemical and protonation-deprotonation reactions associated withchanges of molecular structure, supramolecular organization in enzyme complexes or ion channels, or cell configuration. Sergei’s recent research illustrates the use of localized electromechanical and thermomechanical responses to map the thermodynamics of phase transition and relaxation time distributions on a single defect level in ferroelectric materials and polymers. Ultimately, understanding electromechanical coupling at the nanoscale will pave the way not only to “think”, but to also “act” at the nanoscale.

During his academic career, Sergei has been the recipient of the Ross Coffin Purdy Award of American Ceramics Society for the development of Scanning Impedance Microscopy, an SPM technique for the characterization of ac transport on the nanoscale. He is also a recipient of the Wigner Fellowship of Oak Ridge NationalLaboratory, an ORNL Director Team Award (2006), and an ORNL Early Career Accomplishment Award for Science and Technology (2005). He is the author of more than 120 scientific papers (>1000 citations overall), 7 book chapters, 8 patents and patent disclosures on different aspects of SPM and ferroelectric materialsapplications. In 2007-2008, several of his developments were adopted and licensed by SPM industry. He has also given over 50 invited talks at international conferences and meetings, and several workshops and tutorials on Piezoresponse Force Microscopy. Within the AVS, he has served as an NSTD member at large (2004-2006) and he is currently a member of the AVS Publication Committee.