Eigler, Fisher Elected to National Academy of Science
(Combined press releases)
May 2, 2012
Donald Eigler, 2010 Kavli Prize Laureate in Nanoscience, and Matthew Fisher, member of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC, Santa Barbara, have being elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Eigler is also among 16 NAS Kavli Frontiers of Science alumni to be elected.
Eighty-four new members and 21 foreign associates from 15 countries received the honor in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
Election to the NAS is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer. Those elected today bring the total number of active members to 2,152 and the total number of foreign associates to 430. Foreign associates are nonvoting members of the Academy, with citizenship outside the United States. Foreign associates are nonvoting members of the Academy, with citizenship outside the United States.
Donald Eigler
Donald Eigler is a physicist and IBM Fellow at the IBM Almaden Research Center. On September 28, 1989 he achieved a landmark in humankind's ability to build small structures by demonstrating the ability to manipulate individual atoms with atomic-scale precision. He went on to write I-B-M using 35 individual Xenon atoms; this event was likened to the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk by Jack Uldrich in his book, "The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change The Future of Your Business." Eigler's feat was performed using a low temperature ultra high vacuum scanning tunneling microscope that he designed and built. He has been recognized for his accomplishments with the Davisson-Germer Prize, the Dannie Heineman Prize, the Newcomb-Cleveland Prize, the Grand Award for Science and Technology and the Nanoscience Prize. In 2010, he was one of two recepiients of the 2010 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience. Eiger is also an alumni of the NAS Kavli Frontiers of Science.
Matthew Fisher
Mattew Fisher is a professor in the Department of Physics and member of the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on quantum condensed matter theory, including exotic quantum behavior of electrons in solids, especially Mott insulators, quantum magnetism, topological order, and superconductivity. Fisher joined the UCSB faculty in 1993, taking a leave of absence in 2009 to teach at Caltech, and returning to UCSB in 2010. In 1995, he received the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation, and he was also the recipient of the National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research in 1997.
Kavli Frontiers of Science Alumni
The following Kavli Frontiers of Science alumni were elected this year to the National Academy of Sciences.(In paranthesis: the symposia attended.)
- Nancy Bonini, U. Penn (German-American-1998, US-1999, US-2000)
- Susan Brantley, U. Penn (US-1998, US -1997)
- Karl Deisseroth, Stanford (Chinese-American-2012)
- Joseph DeSimone, UNC (Japanese-American-1998)
- Donald Eigler, IBM (German-American -1998)
- Jorge Galan, Yale (German-American -2001)
- Rachel Green, Johns Hopkins (Japanese-American-2005, Japanese-American-2006)
- Beatrice Hahn, U. Penn (US-2000)
- Greg Hannon, Cold Spring Harbor (US-2005)
- John Hartwig, UC Berkeley (US-1997, US-1998, US-1999, US-2000)
- Sabeeha Merchant, UCLA (Chinese-American-2004, Indian-American-2007)
- Ann E. Nelson, U. Washington (US-1993)
- Nikola Pavletich, MSKCC (US-1996)
- Bernard Sadoulet, UC Berkeley (US-1989)
- Richard A. Young, MIT (US-1991)
- Xiaowei Zhuang, Harvard (US-2001)