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The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward (2007)

Chapter: Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
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G
Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Matthew V. Tirrell, University of California at Santa Barbara (NAE), Chair


Dr. Tirrell is dean of engineering and a professor in the Chemical Engineering and Materials Departments at the University of California at Santa Barbara. His research interests are in the manipulation and measurement of interfacial properties of materials used in coatings, adhesion, lubrication, and bioengineering. Before Santa Barbara, he was head of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Tirrell earned his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts in 1977. Among his many awards, he has received the Charles M.A. Stine Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the John H. Dillon Award of the American Physical Society (APS), and the Alumni Merit Award from Northwestern University. He has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering and has served on the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology.


Kristi S. Anseth, University of Colorado at Boulder


Dr. Anseth is a professor of molecular biotechnology at the University of Colorado and an associate professor of surgery at the University of Colorado. Her research interests are in biomaterials, tissue engineering, and biomedical applications of

Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×

degradable polymer networks. She has received the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation, the Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the Materials Research Society, and the Boulder Faculty Assembly Award for Excellence in Research, as well as the Scholarly and Creative Work Award.


Meigan Aronson, Brookhaven National Laboratory


Dr. Aronson is a research scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory. She was most recently a professor of physics at the University of Michigan. She was also associate director of the Michigan Electron Microbeam Analysis Laboratory, a user facility for the university research community. Dr. Aronson graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1988. Her research is on quantum-phase transitions, phase behaviors of low-density metals, and novel magnetism. The central focus of her research is the exploration of magnetism in metals and the properties of electron gas at low densities, where strong and unscreened Coulomb interactions are expected to lead to unusual types of charge and spin order, especially in very large magnetic fields. Her group uses neutron scattering, as well as a variety of transport, magnetic, and thermal measurements, to probe the ground state and its excitations at low temperatures and at high magnetic fields up to as large as 60 tesla, and at pressures as large as 200,000 atmospheres. Dr. Aronson is a fellow of the APS and recently served on the NRC’s Committee on Opportunities in High Magnetic Field Science.


David M. Ceperley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign


Dr. Ceperley is a professor of physics and a staff scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. He worked at both the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) before coming to the the University of Illinois in 1987. His research interests include quantum Monte Carlo methods and quantum many-body systems, studying systems such as the energy of an electron gas, the electronic structure of condensed matter, and the macroscopic properties of liquid helium.


Paul M. Chaikin, New York University (NAS)


Dr. Chaikin is a professor of physics at New York University. His research interests include soft condensed-matter physics, colloids, nanolithography, and low-dimensional strongly correlated electron systems (especially organic superconductors) using high magnetic fields. Dr. Chaikin is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Physical Society, and a past winner of the

Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×

prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship and A.P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship awards. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004.


Ronald C. Davidson, Princeton University


Dr. Davidson is a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University. His research interests are in pure and applied plasma physics, including non-neutral plasmas, nonlinear effects and anomalous transport, kinetic equilibrium and stability properties, and intense charged-particle beams. As an outsider to the NSF MRSEC program, he has deep knowledge of both the Department of Energy and large research centers. Dr. Davidson has served as the director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory; as the assistant director for Applied Plasma Physics Office of Fusion Energy, Department of Energy; as the director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Plasma Fusion Center; as the first chair of the Department of Energy’s Magnetic Fusion Advisory Committee; and as chair of the American Physical Society’s Division of Plasma Physics. He has been an American Physical Society (APS) Councilor and a member of the APS Executive Board. Dr. Davidson has participated in numerous national and international committees on plasma physics, accelerator physics, and fusion research, including many review panels of the National Research Council.


Duane B. Dimos, Sandia National Laboratories


Dr. Dimos is deputy director of the Materials and Process Sciences Center at Sandia National Laboratories. His research has focused on thick- and thin-film electronic ceramics, and for many years he led work to develop ferroelectric thin films for a variety of applications. In addition, he has done fundamental work on superconducting thin films and diffusion and defect processes in mixed oxides.


Francis J. DiSalvo, Cornell University (NAS)


Dr. DiSalvo is professor of physical science at Cornell University in the Chemistry Department. His research interests are broadly in the synthesis and characterization of materials, recently focusing on the problem of fuel cells. Dr. DiSalvo was director of the Cornell Center for Materials Research, one of 29 such national centers supported by the National Science Foundation. He earned his Ph.D. in applied physics in 1971 from Stanford University. He then joined the research staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories (now Lucent Technologies), where he later headed several research departments. In 1986, Dr. DiSalvo moved to Cornell’s Chemistry Department. His research interests are in the synthesis and characterization of inorganic compounds, and he is currently specializing in nitrides and intermetallic materials with novel

Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×

crystal structures. Dr. DiSalvo is a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received the APS International New Materials Prize. He is also a member of the American Chemical Society, the Materials Research Society, and the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. DiSalvo is a past member of the NRC’s National Materials Advisory Board. He was recently a member of the Solid State Sciences Committee’s Committee on Smaller Facilities, which examined the issues of midsize facilities broadly within materials research.


Edith M. Flanigen, UOP, Inc. (retired) (NAE)


Dr. Flanigen is retired from UOP, Inc., where she was a leading researcher in materials synthesis, with an emphasis on petroleum refining methods and synthetic emeralds of high quality. She has served on the industrial review boards of several university centers.


Thomas F. Kuech, University of Wisconsin-Madison


Dr. Kuech is a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests are broadly in materials synthesis and processing, with an emphasis on semiconductor processing and electronic materials. He has chaired the Electronic Materials Conferences and is a fellow of the American Physical Society.


Diandra L. Leslie-Pelecky, University of Nebraska-Lincoln


Dr. Leslie-Pelecky is a professor of physics at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Her research interests are nanostructured materials and, more recently, science education, evaluation, and outreach. She has been involved with NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) programs, K-12 science education, the APS Forum on Education, and the American Association of Physics Teachers.


Bruce H. Margon, University of California at Santa Cruz


Dr. Margon is vice-chancellor for research at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He was formerly associate director for science of the Space Telescope Science Institute. His research interests are in high-energy astrophysics. As an outsider to NSF and materials research, Dr. Margon brings the perspective of someone involved with NASA science centers and their outreach programs.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×

Andrew Millis, Columbia University


Dr. Millis is a professor of theoretical condensed-matter physics at Columbia University. His research interests include strongly correlated electron systems, quantum many-body systems, and the behavior of novel materials. He received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1986 and has also worked at Bell Laboratories. He is a fellow of the APS and has been a Fulbright Scholar.


Venkatesh Narayanamurti, Harvard University (NAE)


Dr. Narayanamurti is dean of engineering and applied science and professor of physics at Harvard University. His research interests have focused on electronic materials and the physics of carrier transport in metal-semiconductor devices. Dr. Narayanamurti chaired the most recent decadal survey of condensed-matter and materials physics, and as dean at Harvard, he possesses a broad understanding of the materials research enterprise. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.


Ralph G. Nuzzo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign


Dr. Nuzzo is professor of materials science and engineering and director of the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research expertise is in the area of polymers and organic materials as well as chemical processes at surfaces and interfaces of materials. As director of the MRL, Dr. Nuzzo also has broad knowledge of materials research centers outside (although formerly of) the NSF paradigm. He received his Ph.D. from MIT in organic chemistry in 1980; he has received the American Chemical Society’s Arthur Adamson Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Surface Chemistry.


Douglas D. Osheroff, Stanford University (NAS)


Dr. Osheroff, the G. Jackson and C.J. Wood Professor of Physics at Stanford University, won a Nobel Prize in physics in 1996. Dr. Osheroff served as a researcher at AT&T Bell Laboratories for 15 years before devoting his time to teaching at Stanford. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he has won many awards, including the Simon Memorial Prize, the Oliver E. Buckley Prize, and the Walter J. Gores award for teaching.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×

Stuart Parkin, IBM Almaden Research Center


Dr. Parkin is an experimental physicist at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. His discoveries into the behavior of thin-film magnetic structures were critical in enabling recent increases in the data density and capacity of computer hard-disk drives. He is an IBM fellow and manager of the magnetoelectronics unit. His research centers on magnetic materials, magnetoresistance, and thin-film structures. He has received the Outstanding Young Investigator Award of the Materials Research Society and the American Institute of Physics Prize for Industrial Application of Physics.


Julia M. Phillips, Sandia National Laboratories (NAE)


Dr. Phillips is director of the Physical and Chemical and Nano Sciences Center and the Center for Integrated Nanotechnology at Sandia National Laboratories. She is a materials physicist with broad research experience in thin-film growth and interfaces. She was previously manager of the thin-film research group at Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, and program manager in the Consortium for Superconducting Electronics involving AT&T, IBM, and MIT. She is a past president of the Materials Research Society. Dr. Phillips has been a member of the Board on Physics and Astronomy, the National Materials Advisory Board, and the Solid State Sciences Committee.


Lyle H. Schwartz, Air Force Office of Scientific Research (retired) (NAE)


Dr. Schwartz, retired director of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, guided the management of the basic research investment for the U.S. Air Force. As former director of the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), he managed the 350+ person materials research laboratory including oversight of the NIST nuclear research reactor. He was responsible for the development of the Presidential Initiative on Advanced Materials and Processing. His academic career spanned 20 years at Northwestern University, where he directed the NSF-funded MRL. Dr. Schwartz has received many awards, including the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award and the Department of Commerce Gold Medal. He has been elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering, was president of the Federation of Materials Societies, is an honorary member of ASM International, and is chair of the board of trustees of the ASM Materials Education Foundation.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×

Eli Yablonovitch, University of California at Los Angeles (NAE, NAS)


Dr. Yablonovitch is a professor of optoelectronics in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of California at Los Angeles. He is an expert in optoelectronics, photonic band-gap research and crystals, and quantum computing and communication. He has been awarded the Adolf Lomb Medal, the W. Streifer Scientific Achievement Award, the R.W. Wood Prize, and the Julius Springer Prize. Dr. Yablonovitch received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1972. He has most recently served on the BPA’s Committee on Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Sciences. He was elected to membership in both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.


Neil E. Paton, LiquidMetal Technologies, Consultant (NAE)


Dr. Paton is chief technology officer of LiquidMetal Technologies, Lake Forest, California. Dr. Paton was formerly vice president, technology, for Howmet Corporation, and president, Howmet Research Corporation. He spent 20 years with Rockwell International and 11 years at Howmet. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and a Ph.D. in materials science from MIT. Dr. Paton was awarded a Titanium Metal Corporation of American Fellowship (1965 to 1968) and the Rockwell International Engineer of the Year Award (1976). He was elected a fellow of ASM International in November 1992. Among recent special assignments, he has served on several National Research Council review committees and was chair of the 1983 Gordon Conference on Physical Metallurgy. Dr. Paton was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2002.

NRC STAFF

Donald C. Shapero, Board on Physics and Astronomy


Dr. Shapero received a B.S. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1964 and a Ph.D. from MIT in 1970. His thesis addressed the asymptotic behavior of relativistic quantum field theories. After receiving the Ph.D., he became a Thomas J. Watson Postdoctoral Fellow at IBM. He subsequently became an assistant professor at American University, later moving to Catholic University, and then joining the staff of the National Research Council in 1975. Dr. Shapero took a leave of absence from the NRC in 1978 to serve as the first executive director of the Energy Research Advisory Board at the Department of Energy. He returned to the NRC in 1979 to serve as special assistant to the president of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1982, he started the NRC’s Board on Physics and Astronomy

Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×

(BPA). As BPA director, he has played a key role in many NRC studies, including the two most recent surveys of physics and the two most recent surveys of astronomy and astrophysics. He is a member of the American Physical Society, the American Astronomical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the International Astronomical Union. He has published research articles in refereed journals in high-energy physics, condensed-matter physics, and environmental science.


Timothy I. Meyer, Board on Physics and Astronomy


Dr. Meyer is a senior program officer at the NRC’s Board on Physics and Astronomy. He received a Notable Achievement Award from the NRC’s Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences in 2003 and a Distinguished Service Award from the National Academies in 2004. Dr. Meyer joined the NRC staff in 2002 after earning his Ph.D. in experimental particle physics from Stanford University. His doctoral thesis concerned the time evolution of the B meson in the BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. His work also focused on radiation monitoring and protection of silicon-based particle detectors. During his time at Stanford, Dr. Meyer received both the Paul Kirkpatrick and the Centennial Teaching awards for his work as an instructor of undergraduates. He is a member of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Materials Research Society, and Phi Beta Kappa; he serves as secretary for the Coalition for Plasma Science and is a member-at-large of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy Alumni Association Council.


David B. Lang, Board on Physics and Astronomy


Mr. Lang is a research associate at the NRC’s Board on Physics and Astronomy. He received a B.S. in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Michigan in 2002. His senior thesis concerned surveying very young galaxies in a field beside the irregular galaxy Sextans-A using the Hubble Space Telescope. His mentors were Robbie Dohm-Palmer, University of Minnesota, and Mario Mateo, University of Michigan. Mr. Lang came to the BPA after having worked in an intellectual property law firm in Arlington, Virginia, for 2 years and began at the BPA as a research assistant. He performs supporting research for studies ranging from radio astronomy to materials science and recently received the “Rookie” award of the NRC’s Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences. He is a member of the American Astronomical Society.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix G Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2007. The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11966.
×
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