I began my interest in clathrate semiconductor research when I was a
visitor to Otto's group while I was on sabbatical
at ASU in
Spring, 2000. Otto
& I have a DOUBLEAcademic
Family connection! Like me, early in his
career, he
was Pete
Fedders' PhD Student & Jack
Dow's post-doc.
Harry
Hjalmarson, (Sandia
National Laboratory, Albuquerque, NM)Theoretical
Collaborator & Project Director
For many
years, Harry
played the leading role in the theory & the simulation of
photoconductive switches at Sandia. As part
of this project, he was able to
fund some of my work at Texas Tech. This funding went
mainly to the support of 2 of my students (Samsoo Kang, PhD, 1998 &
Ken Kambour, PhD, 2003). Unfortunately, this
funding has now ended. Harry
& I have known each other & have been friends since we both
were in Jack
Dow's group (Harry was a PhD student & I was a post-doc) at the U. of
Illinois-Urbana in 1977
& 1978
(further mention of Jack
Dow is
below)
Ken was my graduate
student. He finished his PhD in 2003. He has
a staff position at at Sandia. He continues with some work related
to simulation of photoconductive semiconductor switch behavior at high electric fields.
Fred
Zutavern, (Sandia)Fabrication
& Characterization
of
Semiconductor Switches
Fred is an
experimentalist. He & I have been friends for several years. He has
done much work on fabricaton & characterization of photoconductive semiconductor switches, especially GaAs-based switches.
Martin was the
Principal Investigator on the MURI
Compact Pulsed Power Program. I shared some of this funding during 2001-2006. He & I
also had an earlier collaboration (starting in
the early 1980's)
which
lasted for about
a decade. Along with his students, we published 9 papers together from 1983-1992!
These were mainly on the properties of defects in semiconductors.
During that period, I also played a role in the
supervision of 4 of his PhD students.
Martin has
also been a technical
consultant on Hollywood movies & TV
shows.
He is the only person I know who has actually
appeared in a movie! (Real
Genius,
1985. This fairly silly movie is considered "classic" by some
people. It likely appeals only to those of us who might be considered
"nerds".)
I owe Pete A
LOT for
mentoring me early in my career & for providing me
the foundation to have a successful career!
He & I published 9 papers together from 1972-1995!
These were on a variety of topics ranging from magnetic resonance and
magnetic materials to electronic properties of semiconductors and
semiconductor alloys.
Pete had avery
distinguished~40 year career in theoretical/computational
condensed matter/materials physics. His PhD dissertation (Harvard, 1965)
was on anti-ferromagnetism in chromium. His postdoc (Princeton, 1965-68)
was spent developing a theory of metallic surfaces. He arrived at Washington U.in 1968. There, he studied &
published on an
amazingly wide variety of theoretical topics in magnetism, magnetic
resonance, ultrasonic magnetic resonance, solid molecular hydrogen,
semiconductor physics, & semiconductor alloys.
Most of last several
years of his career were devoted to various aspects of the theory of
amorphous silicon & related materials.
After his
retirement, Pete & his wife Cindy moved to San Diego, CA. There, he
is enjoying life without much physics. They live in La Jolla, which is
a very beautiful, but very expensive area. He spends considerable time
working on his hobby, which is researching the history of World War I
aviation, including air battles & fighter plane design. I
understand that he has published some of his historical research and
that he has presented some of it at historical conferences. He has also
appeared on the History Channel to discuss some of his findings. Some
of his spare time is spent serving as a volunteer Docent
(on previous link, see pararaph 3, "WWI in the Air")
at
the San Diego Air & Space Museum.
He also uses some of his time
building models of World
War I aircraft.
I definitely owe Jack A
LOT. Without
his influence, I likely would not have
started research on semiconductors! I also might have
ended up "stuck"
in Europe with no job after my Swiss post-doc. He & I
published 6 papers together from 1979-1984!
These were on the properties (electronic &
vibrational) of disordered
alloys.
Jean
& I published 3 papers together
from 1977-1982! These
were on the
electronic properties of small metallic particles.
I also owe Jean A
LOT, both professionally & personally. He
gave me the
chance of a lifetime by hiring me for a 2-year post-doc
at EPFL in the beautiful city of Laussane,
on picturesque Lake Geneva, in the French speaking part of
Switzerland. In addition to a unique professional experience, living there
for 2 years was a wonderful
experience for Barbara & me.The personal highlight of our time there was, of
course, the fact that our son,
Chris, was born while we were there! Another major benefit of our having lived
there was that both Barbara & I ended up being able to understand
& speak French at a fairly reasonable level.