Archived Newsletters

Winter 2010 Newsletter

DMP Newsletter

In This Issue

A Message from the Chair

New materials and novel devices are the basis for much (if not all) of the interesting work done in Condensed Matter and Materials Physics and provide the rationale for the construction of large machines such as synchrotrons and neutron sources. Much new physics arose by the discovery of new phenomena in materials including superconductivity, magnetism, ferroelectricity, multiferroicity, nanoscience, etc. Thus Materials Physics continuously has brought excitement and new ideas to Physics.

In spite of this, the importance of Materials Physics needs further articulating for our colleagues in the field and for the public in general. The Materials Physics Division has started some activities in this direction with the expectation that these will continue in the future.

Student Travel Awards. Young students are the basis for the vital future of the field. We have been very lucky to receive funds to continue the student travel award. See Iris Ovshinsky Student Travel Awards below.

Looking forward to seeing you in Portland,

R. Ramesh, Chair

Division of Materials Physics

New Members of the Executive Committee

The following members were elected to serve in the DMP Executive Committee

  • Vice-Chair: Darrell Schlom
  • Member-at-Large: Amanda Petford-Long
  • Member-at-Large: Philip Duxbury

We congratulate the new members of the Executive Committee and look forward to their participation and leadership.

Call for DMP Focus Session Topics for 2011 APS March Meeting

It is never too early to start thinking of the 2011 March meeting!! The excitement of our field is manifest from the large number of Focus Topics in areas of active research. Each March Meeting new topics are added and mature topics are discontinued. Even as we prepare for the 2010 APS March Meeting, we are seeking suggestions for new Focus Session Topics for the 2011 APS March Meeting. Your contribution is essential for this process. We welcome your proposal for new Focus Topics in new, vibrant areas of research in the field. A Focus Topic generally consists of a series of sessions, each of which is typically seeded with one invited talk, the remainder of the session being composed of contributed presentations. Your suggestions should provide the following information:

  • Title of the Focus Topic
  • The nominator’s name, affiliation, phone number and e-mail address
  • Suggested possible session organizers
  • A one paragraph description of the scope of the session.

Please send a copy to Robert Nemanich, the DMP Chair and Peter Schiffer, chair-elect.

March Meeting: Location

The 2010 March Meeting of the APS will take place, March 15-19, 2010 in The Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR. The headquarters hotel is the Hilton Portland Hotel. All non-technical APS-sponsored and satellite meetings will take place at the Hilton. Bussing will be provided to the convention center from all hotels not within walking distance.

The American Physical Society-Division of Materials Physics

Iris Ovshinsky Student Travel Awards

The Iris Ovshinsky Student Travel Awards was set up to assist in the career of young researchers. The Awards are named after Iris Ovshinsky who had a very strong interest and commitment to scientific education. It was endowed in perpetuity by the Ovshinsky family, their colleagues at Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) companies and all their numerous friends from many social, intellectual and business relationships.

There will be ten $500 awards each year for students to participate in APS meetings that are sponsored by the Division of Materials Physics. The recipients will be chosen from suggestions from the physics community in general. Preference will be given to invited speakers at these meetings. The selection committee will consist of the following officers of the Division of Materials Physics: Treasurer, Vice Chair and Past Chair.

Nominations must be made 2 months before the meeting for which the Travel Award is requested and should include:

  • 1 page vita, including publication list
  • Abstract to be presented at the meeting.

The Awards will be presented at the March meeting during the New Fellows and Awards Reception, Tuesday 5:30-7:00 p.m.

We are extremely grateful to the Ovshinsky family for this award. Special thanks go to Prof. Brian Schwartz who has made this award possible and for all his efforts on behalf of Materials Physics over the years.

The winners of the 2010 Iris Ovshinsky Student Travel Awards for Materials Physics are:

  • P. Alexander, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
  • G. Chen, UCSB
  • W. Chen, Northwestern U.
  • K. Clark, Ohio U.
  • Q. He, Univ. of California, Berkeley
  • M. Kamentska, Columbia U.
  • S. Kusminsky, Northeastern U.
  • A. Luican, Rutgers U.
  • A. May, Caltech
  • D. Toyli, UCSB

March Meeting: DMP Sponsored Symposia & Special Events

I. Session W3: Adler, McGroddy, and Pake Award/Prize Session
Sponsoring Units: DMP, FIAP
Chair: Robert Nemanich, Arizona State University
Room: Oregon Ballroom 203; Thursday, March 18, 2010

11:15AM - 11:51AM
W3.00001: James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials Talk: A theorist's-eye view of multiferroics
Invited Speaker: Nicola Spaldin

11:51AM - 12:27PM
W3.00002: James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials Talk: What is new in multiferroicity?: Mott ferroelectrics!
Invited Speaker: Sang-Wook Cheong

12:27PM - 1:03PM
W3.00003: James C. McGroddy Prize Talk: Controlling and Manipulating Ferromagnetism with an Electric Field Using Multiferroic Oxide Heterostructures
Invited Speaker: R. Ramesh

1:03PM - 1:39PM
W3.00004: David Adler Lectureship Award in the Field of Materials Physics Talk: Surfaces of Quasicrystals
Invited Speaker: Patricia Thiel

1:39PM - 2:15PM
W3.00005: George E. Pake Prize Talk: Leading Applied R&D: Seeking Serendipity
Invited Speaker: Robert Frosch

II. Session Z3: Response of Magnetism to Electric Fields and Light
Sponsoring Units: DMP
Chair: Ramamoorthy Ramesh, University of California, Berkeley
Room: Oregon Ballroom 203; Friday, March 19, 2010

11:15AM - 11:51AM
Z3.00001: Domains in multiferroics with magnetically induced ferroelectricity
Invited Speaker: Manfred Fiebig

11:51AM - 12:27PM
Z3.00002: Femtosecond response of exchange biased bilayers
Invited Speaker: Shimshon Bar-Ad

12:27PM - 1:03PM
Z3.00003: Electric field modulation of magnetism in multiferroics
Invited Speaker: Yoshinori Tokura

1:03PM - 1:39PM
Z3.00004: Coherent ultrafast magnetism
Invited Speaker: Jean-Yves Bigot

1:39PM - 2:15PM
Z3.00005: Electrical control of exchange coupling in disordered multiferroics
Invited Speaker: Wolfgang Kleemann

APS Prizes & Awards Ceremonial Session
Monday, March 15, 2010, 5:45 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.
Convention Center

  • Prizes and awards will be bestowed on several individuals for outstanding contributions to physics. Please plan on attending the Awards Program and join us in honoring these individuals. The names of the awards and awardees will be included in the printed program distributed at the meeting.
  • The Welcome Reception will begin immediately following the Awards Program.

Session Q3: Physics for Everyone
Sponsoring Units: DMP
Chair: Ivan K. Schuller, University of California, San Diego
Room: Oregon Ballroom 203; Wednesday, March 17, 2010

11:15AM - 11:51AM
Q3.00001: Show stoppers for energy production
Invited Speaker: Ray Orbach

11:51AM - 12:27PM
Q3.00002: The new missile defense system
Invited Speaker: Ted Postol

12:27PM - 1:03PM
Q3.00003: Imaging in the Infrared
Invited Speaker: Charles Falco

1:03PM - 1:39PM
Q3.00004: The Schoen Affair
Invited Speaker: Eugenie Samuel Reich

1:39PM - 2:15PM
Q3.00005: The Flight of a Baseball
Invited Speaker: Alan Nathan

Premeeting Workshops

Energy Research Opportunities Workshop
Sunday, March 14 - 8:30 a.m.

Education Workshop
Sunday, March 14 - 1:00 p.m. Portland Hilton

Workshop: Writing an Effective Op-ed
Sunday, March 14

March Meeting: Tutorials

Sunday, March 14, Oregon Convention Center
Tutorial Program Chair
Mark Johnson, NRL, Washington, DC

Morning Tutorials
Convention Center
8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

  • Tutorial #1: Complex Oxide Thin Films and Superlattices Room D136
  • Tutorial #2: Topological Insulators Room D137-139
  • Tutorial #3: Advances in Josephson Quantum Circuits Room C123
  • Tutorial #4: Density Functional Theory Room C124

Afternoon Tutorials
Convention Center
1:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

  • Tutorial #5: Emergent Phenomena in Bulk Complex Oxides Room C124
  • Tutorial #6: Graphene Room D137-139
  • Tutorial #7: Physics Careers in Industry and Government Room D133-134
  • Tutorial #8: Spintronics Room C123

March Meeting: Tutorial for Authors and Referees

Sponsored by APS Journals
APS Journals Booth

Monday - Wednesday
APS Editorial Q & A

Tuesday, March 16 - 2:30 p.m.
Meet the Editors of AIP and APS Reception

Tuesday, March 16 - 4:00 p.m.
Tutorial for Authors and Referees

Wednesday, March 17 - 8:00 a.m.
"Trends" in the APS Publication Physics - Session U45

Wednesday, March 17 - 7:30 p.m.

DMP Executive Committee

The Executive Committee Officers for the 2010-2011 year, who begin their terms immediately following the March meeting in Portland, are:

Chair: Robert Nemanich, Arizona State University (03/10 – 02/11)

Chair-Elect: Peter Schiffer, Penn State University (03/09 – 02/10)

*Vice Chair: D.G. Schlom, Cornell University

Past Chair: R. Ramesh, University of California, Berkeley (03/09 – 02/10)

Secretary/Treasurer: Chris Palmstrøm, University of California, Santa Barbara (03/08-02/11)

Councilor: Theodore L Einstein, University of Maryland-College Park (01/09 - 12/12)

Members-at-Large:

  • Julie Borchers, Natl. Inst. of Stds. & Tech.-NIST (03/08 - 02/11)
  • Daniel Stephen Dessau, University of Colorado – Boulder (03/08 - 02/11)
  • David J. Sellmyer, University of Nebraska (03/09 – 02/12)
  • Nicola Spaldin, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara (03/09 – 02/12)
  • *Amanda Petford-Long, Argonne National Laboratory (03/10 – 02/13)
  • *Philip Duxbury, Michigan State University (03/10 – 02/13)

*Newly elected

Award and Prize Winners

David Adler Lectureship Award in the Field of Materials Physics
Patricia Thiel, Iowa State University
"For seminal contributions to surface structure and dynamics of complex metallic alloys, including quasicrystals and kinetically limited growth and relaxation of nanostructures in thin metal films."

James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials
Sang-Wook Cheong
Ramamoorthy Ramesh
Nicola A. Spaldin
"For groundbreaking contributions in theory and experiment that have advanced the understanding and utility of multiferroic oxides."

Maria Goeppert Mayer Award
Alessandra Lanzara
"For high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and imaging studies of the cuprate superconductors and graphene that elucidate their electronic properties."

2010 Fellows nominated by DMP:
Budko, Sergey
Iowa State University
Citation: For significant contributions to the study of superconducting, magnetic transport properties of metals, such as field-induced quantum criticality in heavy fermions and superconductivity in layered cuprate, rare earth nickel borocarbide, magnesium diboride, and iron arsenide-based compounds.

Cacialli, Franco
University College London
Citation: For his significant contributions to the science and technology of organic semiconductors and related applications, and especially for seminal contributions to the scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) assisted lithography of organic semiconductor nanostructures.

Chang, Keejoo
Korea Adv Inst of Sci & Tech
Citation: For his outstanding contributions to computational materials physics, in particular the fundamental understanding of defects, impurities, and high-pressure phases of semiconductors.

Chisholm, Matthew F.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Citation: For pioneering contributions to materials and interface physics through scanning transmission electron microscopy.

Haglund Jr., Richard F.
Vanderbilt University
Citation: For the innovative creation of new materials and the exploration of their properties employing sophisticated optical probes.

Hipps, Kerry W.
Washington State University
Citation: For his pioneering and innovative work in tunneling spectroscopy and in STM based orbital mediated tunneling through molecular systems.

Jia, Quanxi
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Citation: For pioneering contributions in epitaxial functional metal-oxide films for coated conductors and electronic devices.

Kash, Kathleen
Case Western Reserve University
Citation: In recognition of the breadth of her outstanding contributions to the study of semiconductors, which include the invention and study of strain-induced semiconductor quantum wires and dots, the study of carrier-phonon interactions using optical spectroscopy, and the development of novel synthesis methods for nitride semiconductors.

Krishnan, Kannan M.
University of Washington
Citation: For original and creative work in magnetism and electron microscopy elucidating growth mechanisms and the role of microstructure in determining fundamental properties of thin films, nanoscale structures and devices.

Kwo, Jueinai
National Tsing Hua University
Citation: For her outstanding work in developing novel electronic materials using innovative fabrication techniques, especially her pioneering work that laid the foundation for the field of artificial magnetic superlattices.

Orme, Christine A.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Citation: For her outstanding contributions in understanding the fundamental physics of crystallization and materials assembly with application to biomineralizaion, biomimetic synthesis, and shape control of nanostructures.
Nominated by: Materials Physics (DMP)

Smith, Kevin E.
Boston University
Citation: For pioneering contributions to the study of the electronic structure of solids using angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy, soft x-ray emission spectroscopy and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering.

Wu, Yue
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Citation: For pioneering NMR studies of structures and dynamics of bulk metallic glasses, and of nanotubular materials including their interactions with guest molecules.

Zakhidov, Anvar
University of Texas at Dallas
Citation: For pioneering contributions to the design, fabrication, characterization and understanding of advanced functional nanomaterials and associated devices, from carbon nanotubes, superconducting or magnetic fullerenes and photonic crystals to solar cells, OLEDs and cold field emission cathodes.

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