Prof. Chris Palmstrøm Awarded Two Major Honors

Prof. Chris Palmstrøm

National Security Science and Engineering Fellow

(10/22/2015) - In June of this year, Professor Christopher Palmstrøm of the University of California Santa Barbara was chosen as a National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellow (NSSEFF), one of only seven distinguished faculty scientists and engineers, by the Department of Defense (DoD). Significant research support is granted to each fellow and Prof. Palmstrøm will use the grant to study a class of functional materials known as Heusler compounds.

Prof. Palmstrøm intends to develop Heusler compounds,a large group of intermetallic compounds with similar crystal structures having a vast array of tunable properties. His research will create new possibilities of engineering novel materials and heterostructures with superior properties for semiconductor technology. His goal is to develop a fundamental scientific understanding of coupling between different properties, such as semiconducting band gap, metallicity, magnetism, half-metallicity, superconductivity, shape memory, and, potentially, piezoelectricity. The Heusler compounds will also be integrated with other materials and heterostructures with additional multi functional properties. Prof. Palmstrøm's ultimate goal is to develop a new field of multi functional Heusler compound heterostructures and superlattices.

The NSSEFF program awards grants to top-tier researchers from U.S. universities to conduct long-term, unclassified, basic research of strategic importance to DoD. These grants engage the next generation of outstanding scientists and engineers in the most challenging technical issues facing the Department of Defense.

MBE Innovator Award

In October Prof. Palmstrøm was also awarded the 2015 Molecular Bean Epitaxy (MBE) Innovator Award at the 31st North American Molecular Beam Epitaxy Conference in Mexico. Sponsored by the North America MBE Advisory Board and Veeco, the MBE Innovator Award recognizes individuals whose innovative work has significantly advanced the field of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Individuals must have outstanding credentials, and their innovative work must have had/or be having a significant impact on the advancement of MBE technology in one (or more) of the following four categories: Materials Research Device Development Device Commercialization Equipment Development.