Walter Kohn to Give Plenary Address at 2009 MRS Spring Meeting
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Walter Kohn to Give Plenary Address at 2009 MRS Spring Meeting Nobel laureate Walter Kohn of the University of California, Santa Barbara will give the plenary address at the 2009 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting to be held April 13–17 in San Francisco. The plenary session will be held Wednesday, April 15, at 5:30 p.m. in the San Francisco Marriott Hotel. The search for renewables has become more urgent as people look for alternatives to fossil fuels. As part of the Meeting’s WEDNESDAY SPOTLIGHT event, Kohn will discuss the vast and powerful potential of photovoltaics and solar energy for the developing world, including a screening of his spellbinding documentary film, The Power of the Sun. The documentary begins with the findings of Isaac Newton and other early visionaries, moving to the groundbreaking work in 1905 of Albert Einstein on photons, to Bell Laboratories in the 1950s, where the first silicon solar cell was produced. The Power of the Sun provides insight into
Walter Kohn the clean logic of solar energy, its efficiency, and many applications. A major current challenge for materials research concerns interfaces (e.g., CdS/CdTe). Kohn worked with director/writer David Kennard and others to construct this optimistic and timely presentation. John Cleese of Monty Python fame serves as host and narrator of
the documentary, making the material accessible for all audiences. Kohn is a theorist on condensed matter who has made seminal contributions to the understanding of the electronic structure of materials. He played the leading role in the development of the density functional theory, which has revolutionized scientists’ approach to the electronic structure of atoms, molecules, and solid materials in physics, chemistry, and materials science. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1998 for his development of density functional theory. Kohn has also made major contributions to the physics of semiconductors, superconductivity, surface physics, and catalysis. He was the founding director of the National Science Foundation’s Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which brings together leading scientists from throughout the world to work on major problems in theoretical physics and related fields.
Teri W. Odom, associate professor and the Dow Chemical Company Research Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University, has been named the 2009 Materials Research Society Outstanding Young Investigator. Odom was cited for “the development and characterization of nanoparticles and nanostructured arrays designed to filter and propagate plasmonic excitations with unprecedented control and sensitivity.” She will deliver an award talk at the Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Francisco on April 14, at 9:30 a.m. Odom’s pioneering large-area nanoscale fabrication techniques have enabled investigations on nanoscale plasmonics. Her research group focuses on optical properties of n
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