50 Years of the AVS (1953-2003)

Era 2: Section 1
1968-1978: The Rise to Prominence

Introduction

While the first fifteen years of the Society’s existence might be described as laying the foundation, the next ten years, bringing AVS to its silver anniversary in 1978, was characterized by rapid growth, both in membership and scope. The widening scope is evident in all areas of operation and especially in technical diversity, education, and publications, all of which are of course interdependent.

Governance

During Era 1, the term of Board members was from one Business Meeting to the next. However, in 1967, the Society’s financial year had been changed to coincide with the calendar year so that it was now split between the terms of two Treasurers. In 1968, the issue was temporarily resolved by having the terms of the retiring and incoming Treasurers overlap to maintain continuity. However, during extensive discussion of the Constitution in 1970, it was decided that the term of all Board members should coincide with the calendar year. The required change was approved by the Board in June, 1971 and by the Business Meeting in October, so that, since January 1, 1972, all the terms of office have conformed to both the calendar and financial years. Ron Bunshah served as President for approximately fifteen months from the Business Meeting at the Symposium in 1970 through the end of 1971.

Although the President, Treasurer and Clerk are elected annually, the practice of nominating the same two people as Treasurer and Clerk for a number years was initiated to provide better continuity. Roger Young served as Treasurer for ten years from 1973 and Jack Singleton was Clerk for thirteen years from 1972. During 1969, one of the candidates for President actively campaigned for the position and was elected. However, the Board, and much of the membership, considered campaigning for the AVS presidency to be unseemly and the Board established that candidates in an election should not use campaign material of any description in order to influence the members because it was inconsistent with the professional nature of the society. Members simply receive a short biography of each candidate for election to all positions within the Society, including Chapters and Divisions.

Until 1969, voting was restricted to members who attended the Business Meeting, although they could hold proxies for absent members. In 1969, the Constitution was changed to allow for letter ballots using a double envelope system to ensure that only members voted and that the ballot was secret. This system is still used for mail ballots but a Constitutional change was approved in 2002 to allow for electronic balloting. The mail ballot was also a success with over 35% of the ballots being returned throughout this Era without affecting attendance at the Business meeting; over 70 members attended in 1970, with 40 required for a quorum.

During 1968, the Constitution and By-laws Committee, chaired by Ron Bunshah, recommended that the Division Chairs should automatically be Board members to better represent the divisional interests; an alternative suggestion was that three Division and three Section Chairs be appointed as Board members. However, the Board was strongly of the opinion that, for efficient operation, the size of the Board should not be increased and that the elected members did represent the interests of the total membership. In addition, all Board meetings were open to any AVS member.

Until 1973, Board meetings were held six times a year and many lasted for more than one day; minute details of committee and division activity were discussed. There were many grumbles about the time involved. In 1973, the President, Maurice Francombe, decreed that four meetings of no more than one day would be the new order. Nobody objected and this has been the standard procedure since then. It was originally proposed that two of these meetings would be held immediately before and after the Symposium with the other two in spring and December. However, the meetings have generally been more evenly spaced throughout the year with only one meeting at the Symposium, and another in December. While the AIP office was in New York City, the December meeting was usually held there and the AIP executives would join the Board for lunch in the basement. This also provided an opportunity for the Board to see the AVS office in the AIP building and wonder at how Nancy Hammond could fit all the paper into her office! The remaining two meetings were either held at convenient centers, such as Chicago, or in coincidence with chapter or divisional meetings around the country, so as to provide an opportunity for interaction with the local membership.

Membership

For the first few years of this era, there was no real growth in membership, although it was very mobile with a large number of new members replacing those who did not renew: almost 500 in 1970! The requirement, introduced in 1968, that the membership application had to be signed by two “members in good standing” obviously did not deter new members. The large non-renewal was attributed to the poor economic climate at the time. To counter the falling membership, a membership drive was initiated; a brochure was prepared which contained a short history, the objectives, member benefits and a list of papers published in the first issue of JVST for 1971.

Until 1971, members who did not renew were kept on the membership roll for two years, although they did not receive any membership benefits, such as JVST, during that time. After that, members who had not renewed by July 1 were removed from the roll; this accounts for the large drop in membership in 1971. The Newsletter carried frequent pleas to members to renew their memberships, or to resign so that the related expenses could be eliminated.

There were apparently other possible reasons for the drop in members. In 1973, The Newsletter apologized to the members for the “catastrophic mess which has resulted from a loss of competence of the AIP computer system”; in March, 1973, AIP could only supply a member list for August, 1972! However, by 1975, all the data was on computer tape and the member directory was mailed to all members.

In his last President’s report, published in the announcements section of JVST, Dan Bills noted that there were 2200 members in 1972 even though the dues had been doubled, to $20 from $10; there was an additional $2 for division dues. However, for this “large” increase, members now received JVST whereas they had previously had to pay an additional $25-40 for the Symposium Transactions.

The September, 1975 Newsletter notified interested members that the UK government had approved AVS dues for tax relief. “Internationalization” of AVS is not a recent issue!

The possibility of corporate members was again raised and the Corporate Associates Membership Committee was formed to study the question; it was transformed into the Industry Affiliates Committee for 1972. It was decided not to pursue this approach since the companies which would be potential corporate members already supported AVS as exhibitors and in many other ways.

A number of members were transferred to the Senior Member category in the first few years of this Era; a list of 85 was published in the June, 1969 Newsletter. However, the Membership Committee soon experienced difficulty in fairly administering admission to the Senior Member category, and eventually suggested that it should be eliminated. In 1976, a referendum proposing such a change was approved by a 76.7% vote and the constitutional change was confirmed in 1978.

The Board noted in 1975 that the Membership Committee actually had two functions which could be in conflict: marketing the benefits of membership and approval of applications. As a result, the committee was divided into separate sub-committees for the two functions.

Several surveys of the members were carried out. As a result, the Board established a committee in 1974 to investigate the possibility of group insurance and portable pension plans for members. A set of brochures on group insurance was sent to members in November, 1976.

During this period, student membership was very low; there were only 33 Student Members in 1969, To encourage membership, in 1974, students were offered a joint membership in AVS and the Society of Physics Students (SPS); they would then receive Physics Today, whereas AVS Student Members did not.

In 1975, a proposal to institute a “Fellow” category was discussed but was not approved by the Board. The issue would come up again, although it was almost 20 years before such a category was established.

The Emeritus Member category was suggested by the Society Services Committee, which was established in 1977 to report on the services AVS did and could provide for the benefit of the members, chapters and divisions. In 1978, a change in the Constitution was approved to add an Emeritus Member category for those who had been members for twenty years, or since 1962, and who had retired from full-time employment. They received all the membership benefits free of charge, except for JVST which was offered at a reduced rate of up to 50%.The eligibility requirements were revised in 1983. This Committee also recommended a “Services and Activities Information” brochure and the addition of telephone numbers to the next membership directory, which was published in 1979. The fact that these had not included before that may seem strange now that the directory is instantly available on the web!

Membership certificates had been produced for the 20^th anniversary in 1973 and were advertised in the Newsletter; in a 9x12 inch format, AMERICAN VACUUM SOCIETY was printed in blue at the top and the society seal, in gold, attached at the bottom; the member’s name would be hand lettered. They could be ordered at a price of $2. Certificates of recognition or appreciation for service to AVS were awarded for the first time to the 1973 Program and Local Arrangements Chairs, Bob Marcus and Peter Mark. The initial design for the certificate was approved in 1972 but was revised in 1975 to be gender independent. Although AVS was ahead of the times, Paul Redhead’s secretary stated that she preferred the first version over the politically correct one! These certificates have been awarded since then, in increasing numbers, to committee chairs, Board members and others who have assisted the society. Chapters could also make requests to the Board for the award of a certificate to a member who had served the chapter with distinction.

The Newsletter had been restarted in 1968 to provide communication to the members. Although publication became very spotty in 1972, a regular schedule of four issues was maintained from 1973 till 1978. Starting with Len Beavis in 1978, the President has reported to the membership in each issue.

Finance

The annual budget of the AVS has risen markedly over the years and it is fortunate that the Society exercised fiscal prudence during this period. Much of the credit for the initiation of this policy of conservatism must be given to Daniel Bills, who served as Treasurer in the years 1968-70. Under his guidance, the Board approved the division of the budget into a series of cost centers with specific approval procedures and responsibilities for all expenditures. A major advantage was a clearer definition of the cost of all prime functions within the Society. As the AVS office in New York has expanded, an attempt has been made to allocate the total cost of that office among the appropriate cost centers.

As the society membership grew, both income and expenses increased quite rapidly. The expenses exceeded $250,000 in 1971 and continued to grow; JVST was the largest item at $106,959 but showed a net income of $14,504; payment to AIP for salaries and all the services they provided was $30,208 with a further $19,034 for exhibit management; the allotment for Divisions and Chapters was $23,958. The annual surplus was about $10,000 in 1971 but it also grew. Starting in 1973, the annual budget figures, by category, were published in the Newsletter.

In 1974, via the Newsletter, members were asked their views on how increases in revenue should be generated to offset increasing costs. The majority favored a scheme for the equal division of increases in JVST advertising rates, both member and non-member subscription rates, and page charges. They also favored small increases in Symposium registration fees, Exhibit fees, member dues and course fees but no change in the allocation of funds to Chapters and Divisions or to Scholarships. In the September, 1978 Newsletter, the President requested input to a special committee, chaired by Charles Duke, on options for either increasing JVST income to offset increased costs or restricting the size of the journal.

The accounts of the Society must be audited each year. This was initially done by Arthur Anderson but, in 1974, the audit was transferred to T.M. Bixby, in Schenectady, close to the Treasurer, Roger Young. Rey Whetten, who followed Roger as Treasurer, was also located in Schenectady and the same auditor was retained. This has continued even though the Treasurer is now located in California! In 1978, the auditor drew attention to the large sum, over $80,000, which was held by Chapters and Divisions in their accounts, and instituted random audits of chapter accounts. These funds had been built up by both the dues paid for Division and Chapter membership and also because of revenue from their growing activities.

In 1977, a liability insurance policy was taken out to cover Board members and Chapter officers while involved in national AVS business, but it did not cover any chapter activities. Although the Treasurer sought a policy with wider coverage, it was finally determined that Chapters and Divisions would each have to make separate applications for coverage. A Liability Insurance Committee was established in 1979.

Administration

A major improvement in administration resulted from the move in 1968 into the American Institute of Physics (AIP) building in New York City and the appointment of Nancy Hammond as Executive Secretary in May, 1968. The space and facilities in the AIP building were free to AVS until the end of 1969 and all AVS mailings were now handled by AIP. The Boston post office box was closed but AVS retained an official address in Massachusetts through the legal counsel.

Increased demands were soon placed on Nancy as the activities grew. Early in 1969, Paul Bryant chaired the Executive Office Coordination Committee to establish procedures for the new AVS office to deal with the demands from various committees. It concluded that the Executive Secretary should determine all the office priorities. In 1973 Betty Kelly started as a part-time assistant to Nancy; she continued until 1993. As the load on the AVS office continued to increase, particularly due to the growing Short Course program, AIP provided additional part time office help; Angela Lui started in August, 1978 but resigned in November and was replaced by Sharon Schlessinger. These part time arrangements did not serve the need and, in 1979, a second full-time employee, Marcia Schlissel, was hired mainly to deal with the increasing number of short course registrations. To improve efficiency to deal with the additional work, “mechanization” of the office was also started, with the installation of word-processing equipment, the original being a very simple Pitney and Bowes model, which Nancy called “Chumley”.

It was proposed in 1973 that AVS hire an Executive Director, as was the case for many societies, but the Board decided that the Society should be run by volunteer members, with assistance from the office, rather than by a professional manager.

In 1977, the billing of members for annual dues was transferred back from AIP to AVS. This helped the AVS office to better track the members and maintain up to date membership records but it also increased the load on the office. However, it was also a strategic move to guard against possible relocation of AIP outside New York City. As early as 1976, AIP was experiencing space shortages and were actively looking for additional space in New York City or on Long Island.

In 1974, the Board adopted the first official logo, designed by Lyn Provo; “AVS” was contained in a double-walled sphere. It was to be used on AVS publications or stationary. During 1978, Ed Sickafus designed a new logo which drew favorable comments when it was displayed at the Symposium and it was approved by the Board in April, 1979 for use on all AVS documents. It was a stylistic rendition of the Magdeburg hemispheres with “AVS” superimposed. Since then, the logo design has maintained the same elements as it took on a “modern” appearance.

Awards

The Awards Committee name was changed to Awards, Grants and Scholarships Committee in 1968; the Scholarships Committee had been a sub-committee. The new Committee was an appointed committee of the Board and consisted of six members plus the President as an ex-officio member. In 1969, it became a standing committee. However, in 1973, the Board recognized that it could no longer handle this task without diverting attention from other pressing responsibilities. It also addressed concerns about strict impartiality and the separation of award and scholarship funds from general operating funds and, in response to an IRS audit, that there must be absolutely no connection between any member of the selection committee and an awardee. In 1973, the membership approved a Constitutional change that established the Awards and Scholarships Committee as an elected Standing Committee; it comprises the six Trustees of the Society, who are directly elected by the membership and are independent of the Board of Directors. The first election was held in 1974. Trustees serve for 3-year terms which are staggered, with two Trustees elected each year. One of the six is appointed as chair by the President, with the approval of the Board. The Trustees were charged with the responsibility of recommending candidates for scholarships and awards to the AVS Board. Since, in matters involving Society funds, the Board must exercise fiduciary responsibility, final approval of awards was retained by the Board.

As has continued throughout the years, the first group of Trustees were well qualified for the job; one had been President and three were later winners of major AVS Awards. Of the first six Trustees. Paul Palmberg and John Yates, Jr. served for one year, R.R. Addis Jr. and Peter Hobson for two years, and Eric Kay and James Lafferty for the full three years; Lafferty was the first chair. In 1977, Walter McCain resigned after serving only one year of his term and Joe Greene served for the remaining two years.

The first major award to be administered by the Society was the Medard W. Welch Award, It was established in 1969 to “commemorate the pioneering efforts of M. W. Welch in the founding and support of the American Vacuum Society”. The need for a “vacuum science and technology Nobel Prize” was discussed by the Board in 1969, when Jim Lafferty was President. He envisaged a “Sol Dushman Award” but, when he could not obtain financial support for it, he approached, through Luther Preuss who was a good friend of the Welch family, the ARIES fund, which had been set up by the Welch family, It provided an initial funding of $10,000 which was set aside in a protected account to fund the award for at least ten years; the Award was to be given not more often than once per year. In 1973, the account value was increased to over $18,000 by an additional gift from the Foundation, in 1972, to provide sufficient funds to perpetuate the award. It was further augmented by the AVS board in 1980 following the death of Medard Welch. The Award is to recognize and encourage outstanding experimental and theoretical research in the technical areas of interest to the Society and consisted of a solid gold medal, struck with a profile of Mr. Welch on one side and the classic Magdeburg hemisphere scene on the other, a certificate and a cash prize, which was initially $1000. Until 1975, when the Trustees took over the responsibility, the selection of the awardee was made by a sub-committee of the appointed Awards, Grants and Scholarships Committee, after it received suggestions from Members on worthy candidates. The first award was made in 1970 to Erwin Mueller and a winner has been selected each year since then, except for 1980 and 1982. Photographs of both the gold medal and the first presentation, were published in the announcements section of JVST in 1971.

The Gaede-Langmuir Prize (now Award) was established in 1977 by a grant of 300 shares of Gould stock from an anonymous donor; the shares had to be sold because of the rules governing the society’s (501) [c] (3) tax status. In 1982, on the 30th anniversary of the AVS, the donor was revealed to be Kenneth C. D. Hickman, who had died in 1979. Jim Lafferty recalls that, after he presented the third Medard W. Welch Award, to Hickman in 1972, Hickman approached him to fund a new prize. The term “prize” was-chosen so as not to detract from the Welch Award Besides $2000, the winner was to receive an antique silver plaque of Gaede and Langmuir facing each other. Hickman commented that it was good to have these two great gentlemen together at last after they had feuded for many years about the performance of their vacuum pumps! Hickman stipulated that the prize should be for a single accomplishment and be given in alternate years. It is awarded to recognize and encourage outstanding single discoveries and inventions in the areas of interest to the Society and is awarded only in alternate years. It consists of the plaque with the citation for the award inscribed on it, a cash prize, and travel expenses to the Symposium at which the award is presented. The Prize was first awarded in 1978 to Pierre Auger. The name was later changed to the Gaede-Langmuir Award, as it is known today, to conform to tax regulations.

A detailed, personal account of the establishment of the Medard W Welch and Gaede-Langmuir Awards can be found in the historical review by Lafferty.

The Awards lunch was initiated at the 1973 Symposium as an occasion for presentation of the Medard W Welch Award; it was presented to Lawrence Harris who then gave the lecture at a session following lunch. This arrangement was considered to be a big improvement over 1972 when only 35 minutes had been assigned during a technical session for both the presentation and the lecture! Tickets for the lunch were $5 but the actual cost was $8.75 per head; the Society subsidized the lunch to ensure a good attendance for the occasion! In 1978, both award winners, George Hass & Pierre Auger, were unable to attend the Symposium because of illness and the plenary session for their lectures was cancelled.

In the June, 1969 Newsletter, the eight Honorary Life Members, from A.S.D. Barrett in 1954 to Luther Preuss in 1968 were listed with the reasons for their appointment.

In 1969, the Awards, Grants and Scholarships Committee reviewed twenty applications and awarded two Scholarships, each worth $4,000, to students at the Universities of Chicago and Missouri. These were substantial Scholarships since they represented about 2% of the AVS budget at the time! Two Scholarships were awarded in subsequent years, sometimes to the previous year’s winners; there were usually more than twenty applicants. From 1973, the amounts of the Scholarships were reduced and more were awarded. In 1977, one Scholarship for $2000 and six for $1000 were awarded; one of these went to a student who had also won a scholarship the previous year. In 1973, one of the four Scholarships was funded by the New Mexico Chapter.

In 1970, the Lab and Shop Note Award was established by the Vacuum Technology Division to encourage the publication in JVST of practical methods, especially in Vacuum Technology. The VTD Executive Committee selects the winner, subject to approval by the Awards, Grants & Scholarships Committee. The first winner was Royce K Wing for “Leak Detection in Vacuum Systems by a Fluorescence Technique”, which had been published in the Nov/Dec issue of JVST, [JVST 7, 610 (1970)]; the cash award was $25 but also included free membership in AVS and VTD.

In 1973, Leo Esaki won the Nobel Prize in Physics while serving on the Board; he had been elected a Director in 1972.

Symposia

The location of the National Symposium has always been a topic of great debate. In 1969 there was a complaint that they had been held in the west only about once every four to five years, whereas 30% of the membership was in the west. It was pointed out that these members did not consider Chicago and Kansas City to be western sites! Len Beavis recalls that this was a hot topic in New Mexico and, as a member of the Future Sites Committee, he suggested that one in three National Symposia should be held in the west but Dick Denton was a proponent of leaving things as they were. Ed Greeley, the AIP Exhibit manager, suggested that, for the largest attendance, sites should alternate between Boston and the San Francisco area. However, it was decided that other parts of the country and Canada and Mexico should also be considered.

The 1969 Symposium in Seattle was the first not held in a hotel; the sessions were held at the site of the World’s Fair, with monorail connection to the hotels downtown. Three parallel sessions on Thin Films, Vacuum Technology and Surface Science were planned, with the Thin Film Division symposium still being held the day before. However, it was decided in July that the Symposium should be extended to four days with the Thin Film symposium being incorporated into the program. The number of papers was 50% higher than in 1968. Acceptance of a paper for publication was discontinued as a requirement for presentation but a manuscript still had to be submitted to the Program Committee, as a guarantee of acceptable quality. The Symposium ran from Tuesday-Friday with the Exhibit open Wednesday-Friday. Ed Greeley recommended that, starting in 1970, the exhibit run Tuesday-Thursday so that equipment could be shipped out before the weekend; this has been the practice since then. He also suggested a “happy hour” as part of the Exhibit but the Board ruled that this must not involve AVS or AIP and must not be held within the exhibit area. Consequently, it was not held at all. It was 1982 before beer and wine were served at poster sessions!

Sessions on Surface Science were organized in Seattle as a “trial” of the potential viability of a new Division. This followed a meeting of interested parties during the 1968 Symposium. A special committee organized the highest caliber three-day program in surface science that they could conceive; the entire program consisted of invited lectures of 40 minutes each and invited “contributed” papers of 20 minutes each; the hope was that the speakers and others would join the AVS as a result of the program. Peter Hobson, the chair of the committee, recalled that an outstanding program was rescued from a potentially catastrophic location problem. The World’s Fair site was not organized physically as are today’s convention centers and the Program Committee did not meet at the site before the Symposium. When he arrived at the site late on the day before the sessions, he was horror-struck to find that the Surface Science Symposium had been allocated a small room on the second floor of the opera house, distinctly remote from the main auditoriums where all other Symposium sessions and the Exhibit were being held. This did not indicate a warm welcome for surface scientists into the AVS or a practical synergism between Surface Science and the rest of the AVS! After some panic, much scurrying around and complaining that the room assignment was completely unsatisfactory, the location, room set-up, audiovisual arrangements, etc., were all changed to a more central site and the meeting proceeded smoothly for all three days. It was considered a great success and laid the foundation for the Surface Science Division. Two of the speakers were Charlie Duke, who was then a professor at the University of Illinois, and Bob Park, the leader of a surface analytical group at Sandia National Laboratory. Both were to become well-known to the surface science world by virtue of a famous article "Surface Structure: Emerging Spectroscopy” [Physics Today (December 1972) 23-30]. A successful feature of the program was the evening session on “New Results in Surface Science” and this “post-deadline” session has been held each year since then.

The successful Surface Science sessions also led to the initiation of a new international conference. AVS had been selected by IUVSTA as host for the 5^th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-5) in Boston 1971. By this time, the Surface Science Division (SSD), was in competition with a number of other groups in attracting the surface science community, and it was therefore essential to provide the best possible setting for surface science papers. Under the leadership of Charlie Duke, a separate conference was developed within the Congress program, entitled the 1^st International Congress on Solid Surfaces (ICSS) and sponsorship of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) was secured. This concept was accepted by IUVSTA and was a great success, accounting for about half of all the papers presented at the combined meeting; the ICSS has continued in association with the International Vacuum Congress. The combined meeting ran for the whole week with four parallel sessions; there were 23 sessions in the IVC program and 15 for ICOSS. It had the largest attendance and number of papers till that time; 40% of the papers came from outside North America. There were 96 booths in the Exhibit which was slightly higher than the average of the previous few years. The hotel rates in Boston were $10-31 per day but there were complaints about the high registration fee, which was $60 with a $5 fee for students.

Charlie Duke recollected in the AVS Newsletter how this new conference came about ["History of the International Conference on Solid Surfaces" AVS Newsletter (Spring 2001) 11.]: "The origin of the ICSS was a conversation between Bob Park and I on a boat trip to an island for an AVS banquet at the Seattle AVS meeting... during which, after too much to drink, we mused about having fun inviting the big time leaders in surface science to the 1971 meeting, and generating excitement by challenging some of the less than perfect ideas that we had heard put forward in Seattle." ICSS-1 generated a lot of "firsts" for the AVS and IVC. It was sponsored by the IUPAP, giving it immediate status as a premiere international physics conference. Three Nobel Laureates (John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and Eugene Wigner) served as session chairs and a fourth (Bob Schrieffer) as an invited speaker. A complete proceedings was published. It was generally agreed at the time that this conference marked the transition of the AVS from a technologically oriented professional group dealing primarily with vacuum technology, vacuum metallurgy and thin films into a full-fledged international scientific society dealing with the physics and chemistry of surface phenomena. In 1971 surface science was definitely "where the action was" in both the physics and chemistry communities. The 1971 ICSS captured the opportunity for the AVS to become the major professional home for this activity world-wide during the coming three decades.

A number of changes were made for the 1972 Symposium in Chicago. A New Products Seminar was initiated as a part of the Vacuum Technology Division’s program. This was in response to complaints from the equipment manufacturers that the technical sessions were not relevant to them. It provided equipment manufacturers an opportunity to present an in-depth technical discussion of new products marketed in the prior year. In his retiring President’s message, Dan Bills noted that the two sessions on commercial equipment had provided a better balance to the Symposium and that AVS was changing into “a happy blend of disciplines”. In response to an early low point in the semiconductor industry, a number of cost cutting measures were also taken. The banquet, which cost $12 per head, was abandoned as being too expensive and was replaced by a reception with a cash bar. Both the authors’ breakfast and free coffee were discontinued. For the first time, an early version of the “job centre” was operated by Raymond Sears of AIP, who gave an employment seminar and arranged individual consultations on request.

At the Board meeting which followed this Symposium, disgust was expressed at the “terrible” slides which had been presented at the Symposium and it was decided to copy “rules for making slides” from the ASM journal and distribute them to future presenters. It is not clear that this resulted in better slides; if it did, the impact was short-lived! It was also decided that, due to the advanced planning required for the growing Symposium, the Chairs of the Program and Local Arrangements Committees should be appointed fifteen months before the Symposium for which they were responsible. As the Symposium has further increased in size and breadth, the time between appointment of these positions and the Symposium has steadily increased. The Program Committee for 1976 held its first meeting during the 1975 Symposium. Previously, the first meeting of the program Committee was held in December, only 9-10 months before the symposium.

At the 20^th National Symposium in New York City, one of the Thin Film Division sessions was denoted the Klaus Behrndt Memorial session; Behrndt had been the driving force in the formation of the division and had died in tragic circumstances. At the Awards lunch, Hans Mark gave a talk on “The Danger of ‘Relevance’ in Fundamental Research”. Immediately after the lunch, the Welch Award lecture was given in a plenary session.

The 1974 Symposium was held at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. Dorothy Hoffman persuaded Len Beavis to serve as Program Chair. He recalls that, at that time, all issues concerned with the technical program were handled by the Program Chair. These included publishing the Call for Papers, the Preliminary Program, and the Final Program which contained the abstracts. There was a truckers strike in Albuquerque in the late summer of 1974, so that paper for printing the Final Program was not available until one week before the Symposium! Fortunately, Len persuaded the local printer to work over the weekend to get the copies printed so they would arrive in Anaheim on time. The abstracts were supposed to be submitted in a standard format but they never arrived from the authors that way; two secretaries were furnished by Sandia Labs, Len’s employer, to type the abstracts into a uniform format. Because of Len’s other commitments, one of his colleagues, Bob Blewer, became the Assistant Program Chair, a post which became permanent from then on. A few papers were withdrawn well before the Symposium but one invited speaker and 4 or 5 contributed paper presenters did not appear at the symposium. Prior to 1974, not much was done about these un-anticipated “no shows” but Len wrote letters to the individual’s supervisors or department chairs expressing displeasure with such behavior and informed them that the offenders’ names would be given to the 1975 Program Chair, Bob Rosenberg. Len actually received 2 or 3 responses including one apologizing for the poor behavior of the invited speaker! The local arrangements were also nearly completely managed by volunteers. Joe Davis was the Local Arrangements Chair in 1974. Much depended upon coordination between local arrangements and the program and Len and Joe spent a lot of time together getting session rooms and meeting rooms arranged with the proper times, as well as all the special meetings and dinners.

The 1975 Symposium was held in Philadelphia, although Miami Beach had been selected in 1970 as the site. During 1972, the Florida Chapter had suggested that it be relocated to Tampa since there was no vacuum industry in the Miami area. However, the increasing space requirements resulted in moving the site to Philadelphia, despite the Board’s concern about changing venues after making a commitment, This was just one of several problems with sites during this Era because the growth in the size and scope of the Symposia had not been anticipated; technical sessions, the Exhibit and Short Courses all required more space.

During this Era, the program booklet evolved to provide more information and also became more attractive. For the 1971 Symposium, it was printed, blue on white, in 3x9 inch format and included a list of the exhibitors as well as a “welcome.” The same format, without the “welcome” was used in through 1974. For the 1975 symposium in Philadelphia, the 3x9 inch format was continued in black and white but the cover featured a logo combining the AVS logo with the Liberty Bell. Since then, each Symposium has used a distinctive logo. In 1976, it featured the Chicago skyline; for Boston in 1977, it was a sailing ship. However, for 1978, Ed Sickafus designed a new AVS logo which appeared alone in grey-scale on the program book; it used the Magdeburg hemispheres as a basis with “AVS” compressed into the two hemi-spheres. This was adopted in 1979 as the AVS logo. The 1978 program booklet with the abstracts and author index also contained additional information, such as the President’s address, the list of courses being given, notes from the program committee, as well as biographies and photographs of the Award winners; this has been the standard practice from then on. The 1972 Vacuum Exhibit brochure used a brown picture of the original Magdeburg hemisphere demonstration on the cover.

The 1976 Symposium in Chicago coincided with a major concern about energy supply and a special symposium on “Ion-Materials Interactions and Techniques,” sponsored by the Division of Controlled Thermonuclear Research, U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), was included in the Symposium and Chalmer C. Kirkbride spoke on “The Impact of ERDA on Scientific and Engineering Research” at the Awards luncheon. The Symposium stretched over a 3 1/2-day period, with three parallel sessions, morning and afternoon, and some evening sessions. In order to accommodate the ever-increasing number of papers which were submitted, the Society’s first poster session was held. The Call for Papers carefully noted that a poster session was an option being considered, and all authors were asked to specify, on their submitted abstract, if they did not wish it to appear in such a session. Only one poster session, “Control of Thin Film Properties,” was held with only 14 papers; to the great relief of the Program Committee, the session was generally viewed as satisfactory. Poster sessions have been held each year since then, and have increased in size to accommodate the steadily increasing numbers of submitted papers. Considerable effort was made to make poster sessions popular; a survey in 1983 confirmed that the poster sessions had achieved a high level of acceptance, with 80% of the participants responding that they should be continued, and that they personally would be willing to repeat the experience. However, this result may have been influenced by the introduction in 1982 of wine and beer during the poster sessions!

The “ highlight’ of the 1977 Symposium was the “disappearance” of the Program Chair, Bill Bottoms. Len Beavis recalls that, as President-Elect, he was informed of this in late spring by the Executive Secretary because the President was out of the country. The Program Chair was totally responsible for organizing the technical sessions but Nancy Hammond informed Len that nothing had been done about selection of the abstracts for inclusion in the program. After failing to locate Bill, Len contacted the divisional program chairs. John Yates and Galen Fisher undertook to organize the program, which they did in a truly exemplary way. Most people who attended the Symposium in Boston never realized the great effort that they made to avert a potential disaster. Although Bill Bottoms is listed as the Program Chair for the 1977 Symposium, John Yates and Galen Fisher actually did the job and are also listed. Bill Bottoms did not attend the Symposium or any subsequent function of the AVS. Another new feature in 1977 was an educational presentation by exhibitors as part of the Exhibit.

The 1978 Symposium was originally to be held in the Hilton Hotel in San Francisco but the only date the Hilton would provide was the Labor Day week, which was deemed unsatisfactory. The Symposium was then relocated to the Fairmont Hotel, which was more expensive, and also had limited space, which was augmented by holding some sessions in two adjacent hotels, the Mark Hopkins and the Stanford Court. However, 117 of the 254 contributed papers accepted for the Symposium had to be given in poster sessions. Over 1500 people attended the Symposium and Exhibit and there were almost 400 Short Course registrants; this was the largest total attendance to date.

In the ten years since 1968, the number of papers and attendees had tripled and the number of Exhibit booths had increased by 40%. Since 1969, the short course registrants had increased from 80 to 528 while the number of courses given had increased from 1 to 12.

Publications

Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology

The increasing number of papers given at the Symposium, and the additional fields of interest, both had an impact on the journal. Paul Redhead became editor of JVST in 1970 after editing the proceedings of the 1969 Symposium in Seattle, which included the symposium of the Thin Film Division and the first symposium of the Surface Science Division. He inherited a journal that for five years had been struggling to achieve a base of authors and readers, and to increase its size. It was just beginning to be taken seriously by AIP and other societies but was facing stiff competition from the recent formation of Surface Science and Thin Solid Films.

Paul intended to make JVST into a respected journal in the areas of interest to the society and to achieve this objective by emphasizing the instrumentation and the science involved, particularly in the area of surface science. At the time there was no journal that included surface science and surface related technology. Surface Science had started in 1963 but was more oriented towards fundamental science than JVST. Paul wrote to the editors of some other journals such as the Review of Scientific Instruments and the Journal of Chemical Physics suggesting that they might wish to point authors in the direction of JVST if their manuscripts were related to vacuum and were too technologically oriented to be considered suitable for their journals. He also started a program of invited review papers, the first of which was a review of Electron Stimulated Desorption by Ted Madey and John Yates. When he received the manuscript, Paul wrote to Ted and John that they had created a classic; they replied that, if they had known, they would have written it in Latin! Years later, this paper received the “Citation Classic” award of the Science Citation Index.

Four associate editors were appointed to represent the interests of the divisions, Surface Science, Thin Films, Vacuum Metallurgy, and Vacuum Technology. Some improvements were made to the layout of the journal pages and the quality of the paper was improved to increase its longevity and improve the rendition of half tones.

The expenses of the editorial office, including the salary of Paul’s secretary, were paid by the National Research Council of Canada, so that the costs to the Society were trivial. Relations with the AIP publishing division were excellent during Paul’s tenure as editor. The number of journal pages in a volume increased by about 80% during his editorship. Most of this increase was the result of the increasing number and size of proceedings of AVS sponsored conferences.

At the urging of the Vacuum Technology Division, the Shop Notes section of JVST was started in 1970; the Division wanted to ensure that there was a place for practical information on the construction and operation of vacuum systems. It has continued since then and the Division makes an annual award for the best Shop Note.

A new publication format for JVST was introduced in 1972 to increase the number of words per page and thus to decrease the costs. The size of the 1972 volume was larger than average because it contained the proceedings of the International Vacuum Congress (IVC-5) and the first International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-1) which were held jointly with the National Symposium in 1971. For the first time eminent solid state and surface science theoreticians turned up to listen to the experimentalists and to present papers. This demonstrated three things: first, that surface experimentalists were finally producing reproducible results that the theoreticians could trust; second, that AVS meetings were now perceived to be a respectable place for eminent scientists to present their work; third, that JVST was considered an adequate place for publication by these scientists.

Although the large fraction of journal pages occupied by proceedings had both positive and negative effects, the overall effect was positive. The proceedings increased the journal’s content but it was more difficult for the editor to maintain high standards since more that half the journal was edited, and referees appointed, by an ever-changing group of Proceedings Editors, from 1971 until 1978. Rey Whetten was the first Proceedings Editor; he used 50 referees for the 130 papers submitted but 130 referees were required in 1975. Bill Westwood recalls that the handling of so many papers in such a short time was only possible due to the efficiency of his secretary, Mrs. Pat MacLatchy. He spent the whole Symposium either in the editorial office at the Disneyland Hotel or chasing authors and referees between sessions while Anke Junge did the copy editing so that the papers were ready for publication when the Symposium ended. She was the Supervisor at AIP Journal Publications who was responsible for JVST. One author even stayed in the office all night to re-type his manuscript so that it was acceptable for publication!

Originally an acceptable manuscript for the JVST proceedings was essential to obtain approval to present a paper at the Symposium and at most other AVS sponsored conferences. From 1970-75 this policy went through several modifications including the acceptance of papers to be published in another journal, and the use of extended abstracts. It was a contentious issue at the time. On one side were those who wished to maintain standards at the symposia by ensuring that all papers were refereed. On the other side were those who wanted the Symposium to be more freewheeling, with the presentation of very recent results. Paul’s position was to protect the standards of JVST and he objected (unsuccessfully) to publishing extended abstracts to accommodate lazy authors. At the time, the acquisition of prominent scientists as speakers in the Symposium was given priority by the Board over the completeness of the proceedings in the JVST. In 1977, a Publications Review Committee was set up and it recommended that the requirement for submission of a manuscript for a presentation at the symposium be relaxed but that authors be encouraged to submit the paper for publication in JVST.

The relationship between the Vacuum Metallurgy Division and JVST has had its ups and downs since the early days. The Division had arranged to publish in JVST the proceedings of an international conference in 1970. Because the authors submitted longer than expected papers, 235 pages were required; although this would result in a significant loss, especially since the authors objected to paying page charges, the Board decided to honor the agreement to publish the proceedings but made it clear that this was a special exception. The proceedings of the “Structure-Property Relationships in Thick Films and Bulk Coatings” conferences in 1974 and 1975 were also published in JVST. In 1976, Dick Krutenat, the VMD chair, requested that the proceedings of the International Conference on Metallurgical Coatings (ICMC) be published in JVST. When the expected number of papers increased from 60 to 100, the Board asked for a $15,000 deposit as a guarantee of a 70% honoring rate of page charges by the authors. The VMD decided that this was too expensive and made arrangements for publication in Thin Solid Films. As ICMC grew in size, the publication continued to be in Thin Solid Films or another journal published by Elsevier.

In 1974 Paul Redhead took a new job in research management at NRC and quickly realized it would be impossible for him to give JVST the attention it deserved. Peter Mark took over as editor as of January 1, 1975. By 1975 JVST had become an archival journal which was accepted by both the technical and scientific communities. It still had a long way to go to rival long-established journals, but it clearly was going to survive. Moreover, succeeding editors ensured that it improved. Peter built upon the base established by his predecessors by pursuing the inclusion of electronic materials in the JVST. He was active in both the organization and program of the International Conference of the Physics and Chemistry of Semiconductor Interfaces (PCSI) and began publishing its proceedings in 1975. Later renamed the conference on the Physics of Compound Semiconductor Interfaces (still PCSI!), its proceedings have been published in JVST ever since. Peter also published some of his own personal seminal work on compound semiconductor surfaces in JVST, being one of the first semiconductor surface scientists to publish extensively in the journal. During this period the proceedings of the Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Conference also began to be published regularly in the JVST and has continued to be so.

In 1975, the sub-title “Vacuum, Surface, Thin-Film, and Interface Science and Technology” was added to the cover of JVST to reflect the content of the journal. In 1977, a policy was announced to publish a list of the names of people who had acted as referees during the year; this did not include referees for the proceedings issue. The objective was to recognize, in a general way, the efforts of those individuals. However, the listing was published only that year.

A major event during this period was the rationalization of the finances of JVST by the Publications Committee under the leadership of Charlie Duke. The JVST had become the largest budget item for the AVS, and the Board worried incessantly about the stability of its finances. The Committee proposed page charges, advertising rates and non-member subscriptions rates so that the journal would at least break even. It also recommended to the Board that the journal continue to be sent to all Members of the Society, and levied a fee, included in the membership fee, to cover the incremental run-off cost of printing and mailing the journal to each member. The Board had great concerns that providing a copy to each member would reduce the income from the much higher non-member subscription fees from libraries. It approved, on a trial basis, the rationalized financial structure proposed by the Committee, and to the amazement of all, the JVST started to produce sizable net income for the Society. In particular, the non-member subscriptions rose, rather than fell, in an era when they were falling by a few percent per year for nearly all the other journals published by the AIP.

In 1974, it was announced that all papers published in JVST from January, 1977 would be required to use SI units of pressure and that, during a transitional period from June 1, 1975 all papers submitted to JVST would have to have to give the equivalent values in SI units. The Newsletter commented that “The necessary habit of thinking in the new units may not come quickly to us, but the change is inevitable!” However, the conservative nature of the vacuum industry has persisted in the use of Torr and millibars and there is little evidence of this policy in JVST today! A new copyright law came into effect; starting in 1978, a $1 royalty charge was collected for each JVST article which was officially copied.

Until 1978, JVST contained an “Announcements” section which contained information about AVS events and conferences which might be of interest to the members, as well as the Call for Papers for the Symposium, and a report to members by the President, or Past-President. Until 1970, the membership roster was also published in this section, but the cost of the thirty or more pages required was significant and the roster was eliminated, as a cost cutting measure. A calendar of meetings was introduced; although it was “shoe-horned” into available spaces on various pages in 1970, this was rectified in 1971. In 1974 and 1978, the Constitution & By-laws were published.

Newsletter

The Newsletter had been discontinued at the end of 1964 with Society news being printed in the JVST but it was re-started in April, 1968 because publication of news in JVST was too slow for notices of Section and Division events. Norman Wilson was the Editor and was listed as such on the masthead in 1969; the masthead was printed with a blue background. From 1970 to 1972, it was printed on legal size paper. W.B. Mills took over as interim editor in 1970; he worked for Varian, who had undertaken to print the Newsletter. The cost was estimated by Dan Bills at $240 per issue and it was decided that it should be published “at appropriate times” about four times per year, provided this was within the budget allocation. In his first issue as Editor in May 1970, Mills asked the membership for input on the desired content. However, by mid-1970, the Board was concerned by a delay in publication. The September 1970 issue announced the result of a Special Study Committee on sub-groups which resulted in a major reorganization of Chapters, which is discussed later.

J.W. Little became Editor in the middle of 1971 and both the blue masthead and the “boxed AVS” disappeared. The font for AVS also changed and changed again in 1972; there were only three issues that year and they were undated; i.e. not even the year was listed! However, summaries of the Vacuum Metallurgy and Thin Film Divisions were included and they did provide news of important Society activities.

Jack Singleton, the AVS Clerk at the time, took over as Editor in 1973. He cut and pasted each issue and had a negative produced at Westinghouse; this was then sent to Nancy Hammond for printing and mailing. In the first issue, in March, he announced that there would be four issues per year and he maintained the promised schedule throughout his tenure. The 1978 President, Len Beavis, recognized that this was a large load on the Clerk and asked J. Lyn Provo to take over as editor of the Newsletter in 1978. Lyn expanded the Newsletter, re-introduced photographs, and kept it on schedule during his many years as Editor. The masthead changed slightly with the first issue of 1978; the AVS in a box was changed to the slanted AVS within a circle. However, this was replaced for the May, 1979 issue by the new Magdeburg hemisphere AVS logo.

The Newsletter usually consisted of four pages and generally provided information to members on the Board and committee activities, published the annual AVS budget, outlined the program for the symposium and course offerings, announced other relevant conferences and Chapter symposia, announced scholarships and award winners, carried out surveys of the membership, and listed job openings and jobs wanted. In 1978, each issue contained an item by the President, Len Beavis, on things he considered should be communicated to the members. The roster of Board members and Division and Chapter chairs was published in the June, 1978 issue, which had ten pages; the September issue had twelve pages. The last issue of 1978 announced that the Newsletter would be published bi-monthly in 1979 instead of quarterly.

Continued

Era 2: Section 1 1968-1978: The Rise to Prominence

Introduction

Era 2: Section 1
1968-1978: The Rise to Prominence