John Grant Wins Nerken Award 

Dr. John Grant, of the Nonmetallic Materials division, will receive a high honor when he is presented the 2000 Albert Nerken Award from the American Vacuum Society (AVS) in October. The award, which includes a cash prize, will be presented at the AVS 47th International Symposium in Boston.

John is being honored for his pioneering research and development of the technique of Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) to study surface composition and chemistry. This award is one of the premier honors bestowed by the AVS, and recognizes outstanding contributions to the solution of technological problems of interest to the AVS.

John, currently a member of the Fluids and Lubricants group located at Wright-Patterson AFB, has been with UDRI for 22 years. He is an internationally-recognized authority in the field of surface science. In his 30-year career, most of John's research activity has been in the area of AES. According to Jim Solomon, group leader for Surface Analysis at WPAFB, John contributed early in the development of AES by working to understand the information yielded by the technique, and showing that real chemical information could be obtained. Once the technique began to see wider use, John helped to develop standards for obtaining, interpreting, and reporting Auger data, helping to make AES an important surface analytical technique.

September 2000
by Julia Phelps

Back to News