Over 150 Attend the 2001 MRSEC/IGERT
Symposium
The
Columbia-led MRSEC and CUNY-led IGERT held a joint symposium on
June 21 and 22, 2001 on Nanostructured
Materials: Present Science and Future Technology. The symposium
was held in the Davis Auditorium in the CEPSR building on Columbia
University's Morningside campus. The symposium featured technical
sessions focused on the preparation, physical characteristics,
supramolecular assembly, and technological promise of organic
and inorganic nanomaterials. MRSEC, IGERT, and external experts
in the field presented overviews of the current status of the
field, and discussed future trends in the science and increased
commercial applications of these intriguing materials. This symposium
was organized by Prof.
Rasti Levicky (MRSEC) and Dr.
Ron Brown (IGERT).
Major
Honors to Louis Brus, George Flynn and Rasti Levicky
Three MRSEC investigators have recently been honored with prestigious
national appointments and awards. Louis Brus was recognized by
the American Physical Society at the March 2001 American Physical
Society meeting, where he was awarded the Irving Langmuir Prize
in Chemical Physics "for establishing the field of semiconductor
nanocrystals through innovative synthesis, spectroscopy and theory."
George Flynn was one of 72 new members elected to the National
Academy of Sciences. The academy recognizes distinguished and
continuing achievements in original research and is one of the
highest honors accorded to a U.S. scientist or engineer. Rasti
Levicky received a 2001 Presidential Early Career Award for his
research, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The award
is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding
scientists and engineers who are in the early stages of establishing
their research careers.
Daniel Akins Receives Presidential Mentoring
Award
On
September 7, 2000, Professor Daniel L. Akins, Professor of Chemistry
at the City College of New York, New York and member of our
MRSEC was honored by President Clinton with the 2000 Presidential
Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering
Mentoring. The award is administered and funded through the
National Science Foundation (NSF). Ten individual mentors and
ten groups were so honored that have been leaders in encouraging
minorities, women and persons with disabilities to pursue careers
in scientific, engineering and technical fields. Individual
mentors have demonstrated outstanding and sustained mentoring
and effective guidance to a significant number of students at
the K-12, undergraduate or graduate education levels. These
awards are part of the Administration's commitment is to maximize
the nation's pool of talented, well-educated and highly trained
scientists and engineers to help achieve the major goals of
Science in the National Interest. This commitment includes a
demonstrated effort to produce scientists and engineers in greater
quantity and quality by actively increasing the participation
of talent that draws fully on all racial/cultural segments of
the nation's population.
MRSEC
Shared Instrument Facility Opens
In May, 2000 the MRSEC Shared Instrument Facility opened its
doors. This facility is located in the Schapiro Center for Engineering
and Physical Science Research (CEPSR) in 10LE4 CEPSR. It is
equipped with a Beaglehole spectroscopic ellipsometer, a Scintag
x-ray diffractometer, and a PHI XPS/SIMS/ISS analysis system.
MRSEC Shared Instrument Facility
Champion
International Donates XPS Spectrometer to MRSEC
In March, 2000 Champion International donated a PHI 5500 ESCA
(XPS)/ISS system with a secondary ion mass spectrometer to our
MRSEC. It is capable of performing ESCA, ESCA mapping, ESCA
depth profiling, static SIMS, and ISS, all under computer control.
This instrument is located in the MRSEC Shared Laboratory and
is under the supervision of Professor Jeffrey Koberstein. This
donation is the beginning of increased interactions between
the research efforts at Champion and our MRSEC. On May 3, 2000
the MRSEC hosted a reception in honor of Champion's generous
donation. MRSEC Shared Instrument
Facility