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Surfaces

Where Worlds Collide

Surface science as an independent field arose in the 1960s and '70s out of the disciplines of physics and chemistry, with the development of tools for electron spectroscopy and ultra- high-vacuum technology. These new tools made it possible to determine the structure and properties of surfaces and interfaces, and with the concurrent increase in computing power, the dynamics of chemical reactions at surfaces. With the development of scanning-probe microscopy, surfaces could be observed and photographed at the atomic level. In the 1980s, Dave Allara, then at Bell Labs, and colleagues opened up the field of organic surfaces through the use of self- assembling monolayers (SAMs), making it possible to study and design surfaces at the molecular scale.

 

Surfaces Faculty:

Allara, David L.

 

Bell, Richard C.

 

Cole, Milton W.

 

Demirel, Melik C.

 

Ewing, Andrew G.

 

Fichthorn, Kristen

 

Green, David J.

 

Hahm, Jong-in

 

Keating, Christine D.

 

Kim, Seong H.

 

Lakhtakia, Akhlesh

 

Lueking, Angela

 

Manias, Evangelos

 

Mohney, Suzanne E.

 

Muhlstein, Christopher L.

 

Pantano, Carlo G.

 

Samarth, Nitin

 

Sen, Ayusman

 

Snyder, Alan J.

 

Velegol, Darrell

 

Wang, Qing

 

Weiss, Paul S.

 

Winograd, Nicholas

 

Zydney, Andrew