AVS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Awards Committee
- Trustee ( 2022 - 2024 )
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
- MEMBER REPRESENTATIVE to AIP
Job Titles:
- Editorial Assistant
- Member of Awards Committee
- Editorial Assistant ( NC )
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
- Member Services Administrator
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- Associate Professor
- Director
- Member of Awards Committee
- Director ( 2023 - 2024 )
- Director in 2023 - 2024
ASHLEIGH E. BABER is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She received a Ph.D. from Tufts University in 2011 working with low and variable temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. She then completed a postdoctoral position in the Catalysis Chemistry group at Brookhaven National Laboratory from 2011-2014.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Awards Committee
- Trustee 2021 - 2023
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
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- Immediate past President
- Member of Awards Committee
- President - Elect
- Senior Scientist at Sandia National Laboratories
David P. Adams is currently a Senior Scientist at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a member of the Laboratories' Material, Chemical and Physical Sciences Center, he leads several teams involved with the research of thin film deposition processes, process-structure-property relationships and microfabrication.
David received a bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Virginia in 1989 and a Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1994. He joined Sandia National Laboratories' Surface and Interface Science Department as a postdoctoral appointee in 1994. He was then promoted to technical staff in 1997 and attained Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff in 2003 having worked in several SNL divisions. His recent studies have provided insight into the behavior of reactive multilayer films that undergo rapid, self-sustained deflagration reactions, emerging phase change materials for microelectronics, and thermally-stable nanocrystalline coatings. During his tenure, he has mentored many early-career staff, postdocs and graduate students from various universities.
David has been an AVS member since 1996 having served the society as AVS Director (2020-2021), Short Course Committee Chair (2018-present), Advanced Surface Engineering Division Executive Committee Chair (2019), Advanced Surface Engineering Division Committee Member (2016-2018), Thin Film Division Executive Committee Member (2015-2016), and Short Course Committee Member (2015-2017). He is also an active member of the AVS New Mexico Chapter having served as Chapter Chair (2002- 2003; 2014-2015), Short Course Chair (2000-present), Executive Committee member, short course instructor, and science fair judge.
David helped initiate the AVS Webinar program and oversaw the establishment of an AVS Division level Distinguished Thin Film Technologist Award to recognize individuals who have provided exceptional technical support of research and development activities during their career.
Job Titles:
- Clerk
- Member of Awards Committee
- Secretary
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- Member of Awards Committee
- Marketing Communications & Events Manager
- Marketing Communications & Events Manager ( CA )
Job Titles:
- Member of the Awards Committee
- Trustee
- Trustee ( 2022 - 2024 )
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of Awards Committee
- Director ( 2023 - 2024 )
- Director in 2023 - 2024
- R & D Manager for the Materials Characterization and Performance Department at Sandia National Laboratories
ERICA A. DOUGLAS is R&D Manager for the Materials Characterization and Performance Department at Sandia National Laboratories. Erica received her B.S. in Physics and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Florida in 2008 and 2011, respectively. Upon graduation, Erica joined Sandia as a process engineer for Sandia's silicon semiconductor fabrication facility. Prior to joining Sandia, Erica worked as a researcher for a venture-capitalist start-up, Applied Plasmonics, in Gainesville, FL, as well as a physicist for the Army Research Laboratories in Adelphi, MD. At Sandia, she has supported a wide range of research from PECVD thin film deposition, photonics & optoelectronics, piezoelectric thin film deposition and devices, and III-N device fabrication for high power applications.
Job Titles:
- Immediate past President
- Member of Awards Committee
- President - Elect
- Treasurer
- Laboratory Fellow Emeritus
GREGORY J. EXARHOS, a Laboratory Fellow emeritus within the Physical Sciences Division at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), graduated magna cum laude from Lawrence University and received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Brown University. An assistant Professor at Harvard University, his group investigated cation motion in amorphous phases, phase transformation dynamics in amorphous materials, and electron-beam surface modification.
Greg has served the AVS in numerous appointed and elected positions including: AVS President (2009) and Treasurer (2013-); AVS Board of Directors (1998-2000); VMD Executive Board (1992-1999); ASED Executive Board (2000-2002, 2005-2007); ASED Treasurer (2015- ) AVS Long Range Planning Committee Chair (1997-1999); AVS Governance Committee Chair (2011-2012); VMD Symposium Chair (1997); ICMCTF Symposium Chair (1986-1991), Program Chair (1992, 2001), and General Chair (1993, 2002); ASED Symposium Chair (1994-1996, 2001); Program Chair for the 44th AVS International Symposium and Exhibition in San Jose, CA; AVS Publications Committee Chair (2000-2004); Secretary (1998-2001) and Chair (2001-2004) of the Surface Engineering Division of the IUVSTA; SED Symposium Co-Chair for IUVSTA (1998-2004); Trustee-Awards and Scholarships Committee of IUVSTA (2007-2010); U.S. alternate and councilor to IUVSTA (2007-); He has served on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology, and Materials Letters and was the North American Editor of VACUUM. He offers a biweekly Research Proposal Writing Workshop to early career scientists.
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
- Marketing Communications & Events Coordinator
- Marketing Communications & Events Coordinator ( CA )
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
- Exhibition & Sales Manager
- Exhibition & Sales Manager ( NY )
Job Titles:
- Editorial Assistant
- Member of Awards Committee
- BiP Editorial Assistant ( NC )
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of Awards Committee
- Director ( 2022 - 2023 )
- Director ( 2023 - 2024 )
- Director in 2022 - 2023
- Member of the Program Committee of the Conference
- President and CEO of SPECS - TII Inc
JESSICA L. HILTON is the President and CEO of SPECS-TII Inc., a US joint venture between SPECS Surface Nano Analysis in Germany and UNISOKU in Japan. Jessica received her B.S. in Engineering Science from Trinity University and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. Her graduate work focused on materials growth and characterization in UHV for spintronics applications, with specific interest on the interfaces between manganese-based metals and compound semiconductors grown by molecular beam epitaxy and in-situ characterization by scanning probe microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.
Jessica worked at Omicron NanoTechnology as a Technical Sales Engineer and Territory Sales Manager (2006-2013), at Mantis Deposition as North American Sales and Marketing Manager (2013-2017), and at RHK Technology as Director of Worldwide Sales and Marketing (2017-2019) before joining SPECS-TII Inc. in 2019. All of these positions have enabled her to remain involved with science and the research community by working with and maintaining close ties to customers and colleagues focusing on various different aspects of research, surface analysis, and deposition.
Jessica has been a part of the AVS for nearly 20 years, since she first began attending local meetings and the annual symposium as a graduate student. During that time she won local AVS poster awards, a Graduate Research Award (2004), the Magnetic Interfaces & Nanostructures Division Leo M. Falicov Student Award (2005), and the Nellie Yeoh Whetten Award (2006). Since then, Jessica has been heavily involved in the AVS Electronic Materials and Photonics Division (EMPD) as an Executive Committee Member (2012-2013), Secretary (2016-2017), Program Vice-Chair (2018), Program Chair (2019), and currently as Division Chair (2020-2021). In addition, she is the Chair of the AVS Professional Leadership Committee (PLC), which focuses on providing career development and leadership resources to members of the AVS community.
Jessica is also a member of the Program Committee of the Conference on the Physics & Chemistry of Surfaces & Interfaces (PCSI), which is devoted to achieving a fundamental understanding of the physical, chemical, biological, structural, optical, magnetic and electrical properties of surfaces and interfaces and is extremely complementary to the AVS membership and subject matter.
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
- IT Systems / Web Administrator
- IT Systems / Web Administrator ( NY )
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
- Editorial Coordinator
- Editorial Coordinator ( NC )
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of Awards Committee
- Director ( 2022 - 2023 )
- Director in 2022 - 2023
- Senior Research Scientist in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory Located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Vice - Chair / 2024 Chair
MARK ENGELHARD is a Senior Research Scientist in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Since 1980 he has used and adapted surface sensitive techniques, particularly XPS, to study surfaces and interphases important to environmental, energy, and catalytic materials and systems. He has worked as a principal investigator and scientist on fundamental and applied research projects that involved collaborations with academic, government, and industrial partners.
Mark has collaboratively published over 600 peer reviewed journal articles, including 6 book chapters with over 34K citations (Web of Science h index 96) and was named a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics in 2018, 2019, and 2020.
Mark joined the AVS in 1990 and has been actively involved in the society at both national and regional levels. Mark currently serves as Chair of the Applied Surface Science Division (ASSD) (2021), as a member of the AVS Topical Conference, Recommended Practices Committees, and is an Editorial Board member of Surface Science Spectra. He served as Chair of the AVS Publications Committee (2008-2010) and was a member of the AVS Finance, Membership, and Marketing and Communications Committees (2008-2010). He has contributed to the AVS65 and AVS66 program committees, and on several ASSD Surface Analysis and Quantitative Surface Analysis topical conference committees. Regionally, he was Chair of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of AVS (2013-2014), Co-Chair of the 39th Surface Analysis, SIMS USA, and 29th PNWAVS Symposium in 2016, and Chair for the 25th PNWAVS Symposium (2014).
Mark has supported efforts to enhance the quality of surface analysis by leading a variety of activities for the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International Committee E42 on Surface Analysis (active since 2001) and the International Organization for Standards (ISO) Technical Committee 201 on Surface Chemical Analysis (currently serving as the head of the US delegation).
Mark has mentored many students and postdoctoral researchers on the fundamentals and applications of XPS for decades. He was a Guest Associate Editor of the JVST A Special Topic Collection "Reproducibility Challenges and Solutions" and is currently a Guest Editor for a JVST-A Special Collection on Oxide Thin Films.
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
- President
- Chairman of the Department of Physics
MICHAEL D. WILLIAMS is currently Chair of the Department of Physics at Clark Atlanta University, a historically Black college or university (HBCU). He is Professor and Director of the Center of Excellence in Materials Physics. He received dual B.S. degrees in physics from Morehouse College (1979) and nuclear Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (1979). Michael received his Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University (1987) under the late Bill Spicer. Prior to his academic appointment, he was a researcher in the corporate sector of our constituency.
He was a member of technical staff in the Optoelectronics Research Department of the former AT&T Bell Laboratories. He joined AT&T in 1987 after completing an appointment as a visiting scientist at IBM's Almaden Research. His research interests are focused on achieving a fundamental understanding of the physical processes, growth morphology, interfacial strain and electronic structure modifications that occur at the surfaces and interfaces of epitaxially grown films and semiconductors. His most recent work investigates the growth morphology and processing of 2-D metal dichalcogenides.
Michael has been a long-standing member of AVS since his graduate studies at Stanford. He has served the AVS national organization in a wide variety of leadership and service roles including AVS Director, AVS Trustee, AVS Liaison to the AIP Liaison Committee on Under-represented Minorities, Chair of the AVS Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Executive Officer for the Electronics Materials and Processing Division, Chair of the AVS Chapters, Divisions and Groups (CDG) Committee and most recently as Chair of the Governance Committee. He served at the local chapter level as an Executive Officer for the Tennessee Valley Chapter. As CDG Chair, he oversaw the addition of the Hudson Mohawk Chapter, the rejuvenation of the Texas and Tennessee Chapters, and the addition of four student chapters: Alabama, Central Florida, Washington, and UCLA.
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
Job Titles:
- Financial Administrator
- Member of Awards Committee
- Financial Administrator ( NY )
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of Awards Committee
- Director in 2023 - 2024
- Professor
R. MOHAN SANKARAN is currently a Professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1998, and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2004.
In 2005, he began his independent research career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). He rose through all faculty ranks at CWRU, before moving to UIUC in August 2020. His research focuses on low-temperature, atmospheric-pressure plasmas for the synthesis of small-molecule chemicals and novel materials with applications in emerging electronics, medicine, and energy conversion.
Mohan's first involvement in AVS was as a graduate student through the Southern California Chapter where he received a Best Student Paper award in 2002. Soon after, he attended his first national meeting in Denver in 2002 and has been an active member ever since. In 2011, he received the AVS Peter Mark Memorial Award.
His primary service has been to the Plasma Science and Technology Division (PSTD), where he has served as a member of the Executive Committee (2010-2012), the Student Affairs Coordinator (2012-2014), Treasurer (2014-2016), and Chair (2018). Among his contributions were special sessions commemorating the careers of Harold Winters in 2017 and John Coburn in 2019, and along with Sebastian Engelmann and Scott Walton, launching the PSTD Young Investigator Award to promote the advancement of young scientists and engineers.
He will be the AVS 68 Program Chair which will be held in Pittsburgh in 2022. Mohan has also served as the AVS Ohio Chapter Chair (2014-2020), hosting a meeting in 2015, and is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology (JVST).
Job Titles:
- Managing Editor
- Member of Awards Committee
- Managing Editor ( NC )
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
- Office Services Coordinator
- Office Services Coordinator ( NY )
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of Awards Committee
- Director ( 2022 - 2023 )
- Director in 2023
ROBERT K. GRUBBS has presently accepted the position of Scientific Director of Thin Films at IMEC in Leuven Belgium. Prior to this newly acquired opportunity, he worked at Micron Technology for eight years in process engineering developing critical films for high density phase change memories and on interfacial engineering for high performance CMOS. Before working at Micron, Robert spent ten years at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) where he designed and implemented the Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) facilities at SNL. These ALD reactors were used to deposit myrid films for both laboratory mission activities and for national security applications. These applications included lubrication for MEMS, nano-structural templating, phase contrast imaging, dielectrics for quantum computing, metamaterial synthesis, and photovoltaic and anti-corrosion coatings. Additionally, he was the design engineer for the explosively driven ferroelectric power supply used for pulsed power applications at SNL.
Grubbs received his BS in Chemistry at Clarkson University in 1990. He continued with his MS at University of CA Berkeley studying the quantum confinement effects in semiconducting nanocrystals. After a three-year stint working for Silicon Valley start-ups developing rechargeable batteries and a biometric blood-glucose meter, Robert completed his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at University of Colorado, Boulder, studying the nucleation and growth of ALD grown metal films. His subsequent Post Doctorate appointment was at Sandia National Laboratories studying the electrical response of pressure induced phase transitions of exotic perovskite materials. He is the holder of seven patents and has an Hindex of 20.
Robert's involvement with AVS spans twenty years where he was actively involved in the New Mexico Chapter, held the Chapter, Division and Groups (CDG) chairperson position at the national level, is active in the Thin Film Division (TFD) and is an active AVS short course instructor. In the New Mexico Chapter of AVS, Robert was NM chapter chairperson twice, ran the NM regional science fair for six years, was on the scholarship and finance committees and promoted AVS outreach for women in science.
At the national level he was appointed as the CDG chairperson from 2013 to 2016 where he interacted with all local AVS chapters and provided assessment and support for local chapters that needed revitalization. This position required him to report directly to the AVS board to report on the health and growth opportunities of the extensive AVS local chapter network. He is an active member of the TFD where he has been the chairperson for the TFD awards committee for the last four years. His leadership also extends into the AVS Short Course program where he has been a valued instructor for two courses: Atomic Layer Deposition for seventeen years and Plasma-enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition for two years. His energy and commitment to the growth of AVS is unwavering and he is excited to bring his enthusiasm to the future of AVS if elected to the AVS Board of Directors.
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Awards Committee
- Trustee 2021 - 2023
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Awards Committee
- Trustee 2023 - 2025
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Awards Committee
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- Member of Awards Committee
- Designated Director on the AIP Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of Awards Committee
- Office Services Coordinator
- Web Content Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Immediate past President
- Member of Awards Committee
- Gessert Consulting, LLC
- Principal and Managing Member of Gessert Consulting
TIMOTHY A. GESSERT is the Principal and Managing Member of Gessert Consulting, LLC (Conifer, CO), and a former/retired Principal Scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL, Golden, CO). His 35+ years of research span various technologies and materials for photovoltaic (PV) devices including GaAs, InP, Si, CuInGaSe 2, and CdTe, as well as development of transparent conducting oxides (TCOs).
Activities have included establishment of vacuum processes and equipment, development of photovoltaic absorbers and contact materials, material and performance modeling, and loss analysis. Activities of Gessert Consulting use these foundations to assist private and public institutions in development and assessment of vacuum processes and related products. Activities also include mentoring graduate students from institutions such as Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State University, University of Toledo, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Tim has collaboratively published over 230 papers, 6 book chapters, and has over 30 US patents awarded or pending. Tim received his B.Sc. in physics from University of Wisconsin-River Falls in 1982, M.Sc. from Colorado School of Mines in 1984, and Ph.D. in applied physics from University of Wales - College of Cardiff, in 1996.
Tim is a member (since 1986) and Fellow (since 2011) of the AVS. He has served as Vacuum Technology Division Chair (2008), Recommended Practices Committee Chair (2012-2015), and on the AVS Board of Directors (2014-2015). Tim is presently serving as an AVS Trustee, and is the Chair of the AVS Education Committee where he leads an AIP-sponsored activity with university students to develop YouTube videos describing basic vacuum technology procedures. He has also been a long-term member of the Executive Board of the AVS Rocky Mountain Chapter, holding positions as Chair, Secretary, and Symposium Organizer. Tim has been active (since 1998) in developing and teaching AVS short courses including Fundamentals of Vacuum Technology, Leak Detection, Vacuum System Design, UHV Design, Contamination Control, Operation/Maintenance of Vacuum Systems, Science/Applications of TCOs, and AVS Webinars on PV Devices.
Tim has also been a member of the Society of Vacuum Coaters (SVC), the Materials Research Society (MRS), the IEEE, the Institute of Physics (IOP, UK), and is an Associate Editor of the Elsevier journal Thin Solid Films. He has served on numerous conference and program committees, including MRS, SVC, IEEE, Workshops on the Physics and Chemistry of II-VI Materials, and the International Symposia on Optoelectronic Materials and Devices. .
Job Titles:
- Editorial Assistant
- Member of Awards Committee
- Editorial Assistant ( NC )
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Member of Awards Committee