Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2015
Volume 60, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 2–6, 2015; San Antonio, Texas
Session T19: Invited Session: FIAP Prize Session and the Forum on Entrepreneurship in Physics |
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Sponsoring Units: FIAP Chair: John Rumble, R&R Data Services Room: Mission Room 103B |
Thursday, March 5, 2015 11:15AM - 11:51AM |
T19.00001: Prize for Industrial Applications of Physics: Materials science, microelectronics scaling, and beyond the silicon transistor Invited Speaker: Supratik Guha Conventional density and performance scaling of the silicon microprocessor will reach an end within about a decade. In anticipation of this, there has been extensive interest in examining materials and devices that will replace silicon transistors. There is also the more far reaching interest in going beyond conventional computing and exploring non-Boolean forms of logic, and the devices and materials that will go with it. I will describe some of the research at IBM in these areas, including our work in developing carbon nanotube transistors as a drop in replacement for the silicon MOSFET. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 5, 2015 11:51AM - 12:27PM |
T19.00002: George E. Pake Prize Lecture: Physical Sciences Research at IBM: Still at the Cutting Edge Invited Speaker: Thomas Theis The information technology revolution is in its ``build out'' phase. The foundational scientific insights and hardware inventions are now many decades old. The microelectronics industry is maturing. An increasing fraction of the total research investment is in software and services, as applications of information technology transform every business and every sector of the public and private economy. Yet IBM Research continues to make substantial investments in hardware technology and the underlying physical sciences. While some of this investment is aimed at extending the established transistor technology, an increasing fraction is aimed at longer-term and possibly disruptive research -- new devices for computing, such as tunneling field-effect transistors and nanophotonic circuits, and new architectures, such as neurosynaptic systems and quantum computing. This research investment is a bet that the old foundations of information technology are ripe for reinvention. After all, today's information technology devices and systems operate far from any fundamental limits on speed and energy efficiency. But how can IBM make risky long-term research investments in an era of global competition, with financial markets focused on the short term? One important answer is partnerships. Since its early days, IBM Research has pursued innovation in information technology and innovation in the ways it conducts the business of research. By continuously evolving new models for research and development partnerships, it has extended its global reach, increased its impact on IBM's customers, and expanded the breadth and depth of its research project portfolio. Research in the physical sciences has often led the way. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 5, 2015 12:27PM - 1:03PM |
T19.00003: Distinguished Lectureship Award on the Applications of Physics: Illuminating My Career – From Flash Gordon to Laser Surgery Invited Speaker: James Wynne As a child, I was fascinated by television programs about Flash Gordon. His partner in conquering the universe was Dr. Alexis Zarkov, a physicist, who had invented, among other things, a death ray gun. My personal ``death ray'' was a magnifying glass, focusing sunlight on unsuspecting insects, like crawling ants. I also practiced sneaking up on resting, flying, stinging insects and burning their wings before they could take off and attack me. So I understood something about the power of sunlight. In my senior year of high school, I had a fabulous physics teacher, Lewis E. Love, and I knew after one week that I wanted to be a physicist, not a medical doctor, which is the career my parents wanted me to pursue. It turns out that the first laser functioned on May 16, 1960, just one month before I graduated from high school, and it was inevitable that I would pursue a career working with lasers. My first job as a physicist, during the summer of 1963, was working with lasers at TRG, Inc. a small company whose guru was Gordon Gould, now recognized as the inventor of the laser. After three summers at TRG, I spent three years working on nonlinear optics for my PhD thesis, under the guidance of Prof. Nicolaas Bloembergen, who later won the Nobel Prize in Physics for codifying nonlinear optics. Following completion of my PhD research in 1969, I joined IBM Research, where I have worked ever since. Upon joining the Quantum Electronics group in the Physical Sciences Dept. of the T.J. Watson Research Center, my management told me to ``do something great'' with lasers. After working on atomic spectroscopy with dye lasers through the 1970s, I had the inspiration to acquire an excimer laser for the Laser Physics and Chemistry group. Using this laser, my colleagues and I discovered excimer laser surgery, capable of removing human and animal tissue with great precision, while leaving the underlying and adjacent tissue free of collateral damage. This discovery laid the foundation for the laser refractive surgical procedures of PRK and LASIK, which have been used to improve the visual acuity of nearly 30 million people. Today, I am working on validating my concept that the argon fluoride excimer laser can serve as a ``smart scalpel,'' capable of debriding necrotic lesions of the skin without damaging the underlying and adjacent viable tissue, leading to faster healing, reduced pain, reduced probability of infection, and minimal scarring. To quote Louis Pasteur, ``Chance favors the prepared mind!'' [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 5, 2015 1:03PM - 1:45PM |
T19.00004: FIAP Forum on Entrepreneurship in Physics With the changes in science as globalization has taken root, the future role of physicists becoming a part of the industrial physics community is more imperative. When 80\% of graduating physicists will not be employed in academic positions, and 50\% of all jobs for these physicists will be industrial sector, the importance of bringing our next generation of scientists up to speed on industrial applications is becoming much more important with the rapid, world-wide development of technology. FIAP is initiating a forum on entrepreneurship as a major role for the next generation of scientists. As physicists are problem solvers and the entrepreneurial experience is all about problem solving: whether involving technology, building a team, or financing a business. This forum seeks to link successful entrepreneurial physicists with the upcoming generation, through the dissemination of their global expertise and experience. Speakers will include Dr. Leo Showalter (Crystal IS), Dr. Cha Mei Tang (MicroTech), Mr. Aaron Weiss (Google), Dr. Sefan Murry (Applied Optoelectronics), Mr. Blaine Johs (Film-Sense), and Dr. Maximilian Biberger (SDC Materials). [Preview Abstract] |
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