Don Eigler
Kavli Laureate
Former fellow, IBM Almaden
About the event
For the final event in the Perspectives in Nanotechnology seminar series, MIT.nano is delighted to host Don Eigler. Rather than present from behind a podium, Dr. Eigler will sit for a wide-ranging conversation about his accomplishments and career. Joining Eigler for this fireside chat will be Dr. Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin, former postdoc of Dr. Eigler and current member of the Quantum Information and Integrated Nanosystems Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
Date: Sept 16, 2019
Time: 3-5 PM
Location: Grier Room, 34-401 (map)
This event is free and open to the public.
Biography
Don Eigler is a physicist, Kavli Laureate and former IBM Fellow. Don was the founding leader of the Low Temperature Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Project at IBM’s Almaden Research Center. While he is most often noted for his 1989 demonstration of the ability to manipulate individual atoms, it was his seminal efforts to take tunneling microscopes to low temperatures that have had the greatest impact. While at IBM, his research was aimed at understanding the physics of nanometer-scale structures and exploring their applications to computation. In 2011 Don left IBM to found The Wetnose Institute for Advanced Pelagic Studies, a private institute devoted to creating opportunities for scientists to conduct studies free from the administrative responsibilities, financial demands and diversionary cacophony that accompany more traditional positions.
Don received both his bachelors and doctorate degrees from the University of California San Diego and was named its Outstanding Alumnus of the year in 1999. He has been recognized for his accomplishments with the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience, the Davisson-Germer Prize, the Dannie Heineman Prize, the Newcomb-Cleveland Prize, the Grand Award for Science and Technology, the Nanoscience Prize, and numerous honorary lectureships. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Max Planck Society and the United States National Academy of Sciences. He is the recipient of honorary doctoral degrees from the Technical University of Delft and the University of Warwick.
ABOUT THE MIT.nano PERSPECTIVES SERIES
“There is plenty of room at the bottom”, an idea introduced by Richard Feynman in 1959. Ever since, developments in nanoscale science and technology have lead to rapid interdisciplinary advancements in the fields of materials, devices, biotechnology and instrumentations. MIT.nano is pleased to offer a new seminar series, organized by assistant professor Farnaz Niroui, to continuously explore these frontiers.
The seminar series offers monthly talks at MIT, starting in Fall 2019, from researchers across the spectrum of nanoscience and nanoengineering. To lay the foundation for this series, Niroui has organized an introductory set of lectures by experts who have played seminal roles in the progress of our understanding of the nanoscale in each of key areas over the past decades.
Entitled "Perspectives in Nanotechnology," these lectures will offer insight into current research and future directions by the experts based on their experiences in the field.
Each talk will last approximately 45 minutes long and will be followed by a 30-minute question-and-answer session and a reception with refreshments.
See the full list of speakers for the five Perspectives lectures.