Niels Bohr Lecture: The Materials Revolution

Niels Bohr Lecture by Professor Leonard Feldman, Rutgers University and Vanderbilt University

About the speaker

Prof. Leonard C. Feldman received his Ph.D.in Physics from Rutgers University in 1967. He went on to Bell Labs, where he was a department head for many years, and then to Vanderbilt University, where he became director of the Institute for Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Prof. Feldman returned to Rutgers in 2007, where he now heads the Institute for Advanced Materials, Devices and Nanotechnology and is Vice President for Physical Science and Engineering Partnerships. Prof. Feldman is among the researchers whose discoveries led to the semiconductor revolution due in part to his work on the interface of silicon and silicon dioxide. He has received many awards and is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and since 1994 also elected member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. He is one of the most cited scientists in his field and is known as an excellent teacher and mentor with an international reputation as a scientific leader, both in research and in the management of research.

Abstract

Modern materials research includes engineering with atoms, the molecule-by-molecule attack of a cancer growth, collecting the sun's energy with nanocrystals, exploiting the quantum world for computing, defining a stem cell by mechanical deformation and bringing the quantum world to the human experience in an ultra-small solid! Extraordinary accomplishments range from Nobel prizes in chemistry and physics to society-changing applications. Currently, the forefront of materials science is at the nano-scale. Advances in nano-scale materials are envisioned as the solution to some of the dominant technological problems facing our world---conservation of energy and environment, water purification and propagating the information revolution. This talk highlights research directed to these advances.