The e-History of the first fifty years of the AVS was
“published” in early 2004 to commemorate the 50th anniversary
of the founding of the Society. This is a stand-alone addition to that
history, which covers the following decade, adding a summary of the
events during that ten year period. No additions or alterations were
made to tables and figures in the 50-year history. So, the 60-year
history of AVS is contained in these two documents. This addition to the
history for the 2004-2013 decade does, however, follow the same format.
This decade has seen the increasing use of the Internet for
many purposes and this has had an effect also on the Society’s
operation. Nearly all the current information on AVS is available on the
website; rosters, newsletters, by-laws, etc. While the Internet
certainly makes communication much faster, it is not necessarily
friendly to the historian. Records of events may disappear due to
computer errors or accidents, or simply because a website is not kept
up-to-date. For example, one can easily find who is the current chair of
the Surface Science Division, but it is not so easy to find who was the
2004 chair. Of course, the e-History itself can suffer from a similar
accident!
This update of the AVS history since
2003 can only cover some of the more important changes and events. Where
possible, events or changes over the last decade are identified and
described briefly. Where possible, reference is provided to more details
which can be obtained on the website.
Governance
The AVS website has an organization
chart and gives up-to-date information on the people who are currently
responsible for its operation, with a full roster of Board and
Committee members and staff. The site also has the current versions of
the Constitution and By-laws and the Policy and Procedures.
Although
there have been many changes over the fifty years of the society’s
activities, there have been few changes in the governance, which is a
measure both of how well the founders planned and how those who followed
respected the original tenets. Perhaps the most influential factor has
been the continued reliance on volunteers to carry out the many tasks
involved in a society. Of course, with increasing membership and range
of activities over the years, there has been a greater reliance on the
AVS staff for administration, but the direction of AVS has continued to
be determined by the volunteers who serve at the Chapter, Division,
Technical Group and National level, whether on the Board or in
committees.
The
President, Dawn Bonnell, provided an excellent summary of the 50 years
of AVS in the Winter, 2003 issue of the Newsletter.
“My
personal perspective is that we engage in the fundamental science,
engineering, and technology development that underpin functional
devices—first vacuum tube electronics, then microelectronics and solid
state devices, now sensors, spin based devices, bio electronics and
sensors, and so on. And now, as during all of our existence, we explore
the physics of measurement tools as well as the devices themselves. Our
founders were prescient in linking science and engineering that led to
the innovations of high technology. Our history has demonstrated our
eagerness to take on new challenges as both science and technology
evolve. In fact, we show not merely a willingness to address new ideas
and topics but the tendency to identify, define, and innovate; take the
leadership position in exactly the “right” areas—“right” defined as
those critical to high tech that drives society. Our heritage has
positioned us to continue to be uniquely able to lead in these areas.”
Officers
|
President |
Clerk |
Treasurer |
2004 |
Robert A. Childs |
Joe Greene |
John Coburn |
2005 |
David E. Aspnes |
Same as above |
Same as above |
2006 |
Christie R.K. Marrian |
Same as above |
Same as above |
2007 |
Neal D. Shinn |
Same as above |
Stephen M. Rossnagel |
2008 |
John N. Russell, Jr. |
Same as above |
Same as above |
2009 |
Gregory J. Exarhos |
Same as above |
Same as above |
2010 |
David G. Castner |
Same as above |
Same as above |
2011 |
Angus A. Rockett |
Same as above |
Same as above |
2012 |
Alison A. Baski |
Same as above |
Same as above |
2013 |
Susan B. Sinnott |
Same as above |
Gregory J. Exarhos |
From its
foundation, the Society’s official business address was Massachusetts,
where both CVT and AVS charters were issued and the official address had
to be there. For many years this had been Mars Hablanian’s address but
in 2003, it was changed to that of the President-Elect, Bob Childs. Also
in 2003, AVS filed a “doing business” application in New York State.
From its
foundation, the Society’s official business location was Massachusetts,
where both the original CVT and AVS charters were issued. For many
years, the official address had been that of Mars Hablanian but in 2003,
it was changed to that of the President-Elect, Bob Childs. Also in 2003,
AVS filed a “doing business” application in New York State.
In 2005,
the tagline “Science and Technology Society” was modified to “Science
and Technology of Surfaces, Interfaces and Processing” to better
represent the activities at that time and the mission statement was “To
be the premier organization for communication, education, networking,
knowledge, and professional development for our members and associates
in the advancement of interdisciplinary science and technology of
materials, interfaces, and processing.”
In 2007,
the Board discussed returning to a 2 year term for Directors and, after
some delay, the required By-law change was approved in 2009. The 3 year
term, introduced in 1998, had required a longer commitment than
individuals wanted and, since fewer members had experience as Director
over a given time, the pool of candidates for President was smaller.
Directors
2004 |
Charles Bryson
John Russell, Jr. |
Linda Ccechi
Chris Palmstrom |
Neal Shinn
Anne Testoni |
2005 |
David Castner
John Russell, Jr. |
Rachel Goldman
Chris Palmstrom |
Neal Shinn
Anne Testoni |
2006 |
David Castner
Bridget Rogers |
Rachel Goldman
Robert Langley |
Peter Sheldon
Anne Testoni |
2007 |
David Castner
Bridget Rogers |
Rachel Goldman
Ivan Petrov |
Michael Grunze
Peter Sheldon |
2008 |
Alison Baski
Angus Rockett |
Bridget Rogers
Ivan Petrov |
Michael Grunze
Peter Sheldon |
2009 |
Alison Baski
Angus Rockett |
Bridget Rogers
Ivan Petrov |
Michael Grunze
Peter Sheldon |
2010 |
Alison Baski
Jane Chang |
Steven George
Luke Hinkle |
Graham Leggett
Susan Sinnott |
2011 |
Lars Hultman
Jane Chang |
Steven George
Luke Hinkle |
Gregory Parsons
Susan Sinnott |
2012 |
Lars Hultman
Jane Chang |
Steven George
Ian Gilmore |
Gregory Parsons
David Surman |
2013 |
Charles Eddy,Jr.
Ian Gilmore |
Vincent Smentkowski
Amy Walker |
Gregory Parsons
David Surman |
In 2007, a
Special Constitution and By-laws Committee on AVS Committee Structure
was established to examine how the committee structure met the current
AVS operation. For example, there would be no need for a Local
Arrangements Committee when the Symposium arrangements were managed by
the AVS staff.
In 2008,
The Board noted that the committee structure was no longer aligned with
the Society’s activities; for example, six committees were officially
involved with the organization of the Annual Symposium, but this was no
longer appropriate since much of the organization was carried out by the
office staff. The Board concluded that “Standing committees should
encompass the major enduring activities and functions of the Society
while providing a flexible framework for evolution and innovation across
the Society to foster cooperation and, as appropriate, utilize
sub-committees with strong leadership, visibility, and purpose to
sustain effective working groups. Special committees should have an
explicit lifetime and be convened for a specific purpose.”
After
discussion and review, ten Standing Committees were approved in 2008 to
begin operation in 2009: Awards; Chapters, Divisions, and Groups;
Education and Technical Resources; Finance; Governance; Marketing and
Communications; Membership; Publications; Recommended Practices;
Symposia and Conferences. Standing Committee Chairs are appointed
annually by the President and approved by the Board.
In most
cases, the change in name and function was minimal; e.g., the Governance
committee replaced the Constitution & Bylaws committee, the Symposia &
Conferences Committee replaced a number of committees, such as Local
Arrangements, which were no longer relevant since the functions are
performed by AVS staff. In fact, responsibility for the Marketing &
Communications Committee was assumed by the AVS staff in 2012.
Standing Committee Chairs: 2004-2009
Committee |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
Awards |
John Weaver |
Fred Dylla |
Paula Grunthaner |
Ted Madey |
Susan Sinnott |
Chapters, Groups & Divisions |
Raul Caretta |
Raul Caretta |
Susan Sinnott |
Susan Sinnott |
Susan Sinnott |
Education |
Jacqueline Krim |
Jacqueline Krim |
Tom Christensen |
Tom Christensen |
Tom Christensen |
Membership |
Anne Testoni |
Anne Testoni |
Anne Testoni |
Paula Grunthaner |
Paula Grunthaner |
Publications |
Greg Exarhos |
Greg Exarhos |
Greg Exarhos |
Greg Exarhos |
Mark Engelhard |
Publicity |
Staff Function |
|
|
|
|
Short Course |
Bridget Rogers |
Bridget Rogers |
Bridget Rogers |
Bridget Rogers |
S. Theva Thevuthasan |
Recommended Practices |
Robert Waits |
Robert Waits |
Joe Geller |
Joe Geller |
Joe Geller |
Symposium Program |
Dave Castner |
Steve George |
Terry Michalske |
John Russell |
Bridget Rogers |
Standing Committee Chairs: 2009-2013
Committee |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
Awards |
Steven George |
Stacey Bent |
Kathryn Wahl |
Stella Pang |
John Russell, Jr |
Chapters, Divisions & Groups |
Michael Williams |
Michael Williams |
Michael Williams |
Michael Williams |
Jiangeng Xue |
Education |
Tom Christensen |
Tom Christensen |
John Lannon |
John Lannon |
John Lannon |
Finance |
Steve Rossnagel |
Steve Rossnagel |
Steve Rossnagel |
Steve Rossnagel |
Greg Exarhos |
Governance |
Neal Shinn |
Ivan Petrov |
Greg Exarhos |
Greg Exarhos |
John Russell, Jr. |
Marketing & Communications |
Luke Hinkle |
Paula Grunthaner |
Paula Grunthaner |
Staff Function |
Staff Function |
Membership |
Paula Grunthaner |
Bridget Rogers |
Bridget Rogers |
Bridget Rogers |
David Surman |
Publications |
Mark Engelhard |
Mark Engelhard |
Ivan Petrov |
Ivan Petrov |
Ivan Petrov |
Rec Pract |
Joseph Geller |
Robert Childs |
Robert Childs |
Robert Childs |
Tim Gessert |
Symposia & Conferences |
John Russell, Jr. |
John Russell, Jr. |
John Russell, Jr. |
John Russell, Jr. |
Chip Eddy |
In addition to the Standing Committees, there are a number of committees
or sub-committees which report to the Standing Committees. For example,
the Education Outreach, Short Courses and History committees all report
through the Education Committee. In 2010, the “Professional Leadership
Committee and Outreach” Committee removed the “and Outreach” because
they were not representative of the function of the committee. Some of
these committee functions, such as Future Sites and Local Arrangements,
were later assumed by the AVS staff.
The names and contact information of all current members of committees
are available on the AVS website as is the Constitution and By-laws, the
Procedures manual, etc.
Special Committee Chairs: 2004-2008
Committee |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
Buyers Guide |
Ed Principe |
Ed Principe |
Gary Korba |
Gary Korba |
Robert Childs |
Compensation |
Robert Childs |
David Asnes |
Neal Shinn |
Christie Marrian |
Neal Shinn |
Const/By-laws |
Ivan Petrov |
Ivan Petrov |
Ivan Petrov |
Ivan Petrov |
Ivan Petrov |
Committee Structures |
|
|
|
|
Neal Shinn |
Dist. Lecturer |
Neal Shinn |
Neal Shinn |
Neal Shinn |
|
|
Exhibitors & Manufacturers |
Chuck Bryson |
Chuck Bryson |
Robert Childs |
Robert Childs |
Robert Childs |
Future Sites |
Robert Willis |
Robert Willis |
Robert Willis |
Robert Willis |
Robert Willis |
History |
Fred Dylla |
William Westwood |
William Westwood |
William Westwood |
William Westwood |
International Interactions |
Gary McGuire |
Gary McGuire |
Gary McGuire |
Gary McGuire |
Gary McGuire |
Investment |
John Grant |
John Grant |
John Grant |
John Grant |
John Grant |
Long Range |
Dawn Bonnell |
Dawn Bonnell |
Dawn Bonnell |
Christie Marrian |
Christie Marrian |
Marketing |
Steve Rossnagel |
Steve Rossnagel |
Steve Rossnagel |
Luke Hinkle |
Luke Hinkle |
Prof. Leadership |
|
|
|
Julia Fulghum |
Julia Fulghum |
Sc & Tech Policy |
Rudy Ludeke |
Rudy Ludeke |
Rudy Ludeke |
Rudy Ludeke |
Rudy Ludeke |
Student Chapters |
|
|
Raul Caretta |
Raul Caretta |
Raul Caretta |
Student Issues |
Tonya Klein |
Tonya Klein |
Tonya Klein |
Moved within Chapters, Divisions, & Groups |
Symposia Steering |
|
|
|
|
David Castner |
Topical Conferences |
Susan Sinnott |
Susan Sinnott |
Chris Palmstrom |
Chris Palmstrom |
Chris Palmstrom |
Web |
Paula Grunthaner |
Paula Grunthaner |
Rachel Goldman |
Rachel Goldman |
Rachel Goldman |
ICMI |
Bridget Rogers, Timothy Cale |
Bridget Rogers |
Bridget Rogers |
|
|
Sub Committee Chairs: 2009-13
Committee |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
Student Chapters |
Raul Caretta |
Nathan Guisinger |
Nathan Guisinger |
Brandon Howe |
Brandon Howe |
Education Outreach & Materials |
|
|
Tom Christensen |
Tom Christensen |
Tom Christesen |
Short Courses |
Theva Thevusathan |
Theva Thevusathan |
Dick Brundle |
Dick Brundle |
Dick Brundle |
History |
William Westwood |
Susan Burkett |
Susan Burkett |
Susan Burkett |
Susan Burkett |
Compensation |
Greg Exarhos |
David Castner |
Angus Rockett |
Alison Baski |
Susan Sinnott |
Investment Advisory |
John Grant |
John Grant |
Christie Marrian |
Christie Marrian |
Christie Marrian |
Const & By-laws |
Ivan Petrov |
Jane Chang |
Jane Chang |
Dan Gaspar |
Dan Gaspar |
Outreach/Govt/Public |
Rudy Ludeke |
Rudy Ludeke |
Rudy Ludeke |
Rudy Ludeke |
Rudy Ludeke |
International Interactions |
Gary McGuire |
Gary McGuire |
Gary McGuire |
Angus Rockett |
Angus Rockett |
Professional Leadership |
Julia Fulghum |
|
Chip Eddy |
Chip Eddy |
Lynnette Madsen |
Exhibitors & Mfrs |
David Surman |
David Surman |
David Surman |
David Surman |
David Surman |
Future Symp Sites |
Robert Willis |
Robert Willis |
Staff Function |
Staff Function |
Staff Function |
Local Arrangements |
Rick Anderson |
Staff Function |
Staff Function |
Staff Function |
Staff Function |
Program Committee |
Daniel Gall |
Eray Aydil |
Susan Sinnott |
Chip Eddy |
James Fitz-gerald |
Topical Conferences |
|
|
Steve George |
Steve George |
Chip Eddy |
PacSurf |
|
|
|
David Castner |
David Castner |
In 2011, the Governance Committee was
directed by the President to implement a strategic planning exercise to
discuss publications, short courses, membership and both local and
international meetings. These were topics which were once discussed by
the Long Range Planning Committee, which had been disbanded.
In 2009, a new By-law on Responsible
Conduct was approved; it states that “AVS Members acting in an official
AVS capacity shall perform their AVS functions in compliance with AVS
policies and procedures. An individual in violation may be removed from
his/her position, or membership in the Society, by a two-thirds majority
vote of the AVS Board of Directors, after the individual has been given
the opportunity to make his/her case to the Board.”
Membership
The
Membership section of the AVS website contains a “Welcome” statement and
provides information on current membership rates and benefits, for
different categories and also for corporate members.
MyAVS is
the members-only web area for AVS. The site is password protected
(user-selectable passwords), and offers a membership roster, allows
edits to personal profiles (address, journal delivery methods, etc.),
and carries out financial transactions in real-time (e.g., renewals and
adding journals). It also provides current information on job openings
and access to the AIP news service.
The AVS
website was operational on January 2, 2003, on schedule, and there was
no impact to member service delivery. The “MyAVS,” site went live on
February 21, 2003, only three weeks behind schedule.
The long time members of AVS are
listed each year in the Awards Ceremony brochure. At the time of the
50th Symposium, there were five people who had been members continuously
since the beginning of the Society, but Dick Denton died in December,
2003. The remaining four, Collin Alexander, Arthur Beach, Ben Dayton and
Rudy Koehler had been members for 60 years in 2013!
Forty of the over seventeen hundred
members in 1963 were still members in 2003. In 2004, their numbers were
greatly increased; 31 people became Forty Year members, In 2013, there
were 43 Fifty year members and 166 Forty year members, but 36 of those
had died after reaching that mark.
The total membership continued a slow
decline in 2003, but the significant increase in student membership
hides a more rapid decrease in the number of members who are employed.
At the end of 2002; the total of 5,223 members included 568 students,
but the latter increased to 656 in 2003, while the total membership
decreased to 5105. There has also been quite a large turnover; 1283 of
the 2002 members did not renew for 2003 and the total 2003 membership
was 5104. International membership was 26% with Europe and the Pacific
Rim continuing to dominate.
In 2004, the automatic membership
benefit for non-member Symposium attendees was suspended, with
non-members now required to request this benefit at the Symposium. These
automatic members did not provide any dues income, were typically not
active in the Society, and did not renew their membership.
The 2005 membership year closed with
4,296 members, of whom 3,372 were full members, but 744 of the previous
year’s members did not renew; 58% of the members were from industry, 23%
from academia and 15% from government or research institutes. The number
of members based outside the US also decreased to 20%, compared to 24%
in 2001.
From 2006 through 2010, there was an automatic dues waiver for
non-member Symposium attendees with the non-member fee being set at a
minimum of $10 more than the membership dues for the following year. Any
individual paying the non-member rate automatically become a member for
the following year. This was a small change from the automatic
membership for Symposium attendees, which had been suspended in 2004.
In 2006, the Membership Committee had a survey conducted by a company,
Outsell; it was sent to 10,000 individuals of whom 4,000 were current
members and 3,000 were former members. Outsell concluded from the 5% of
surveys which were returned that AVS had a a surprisingly good
reputation for an organization with a declining membership. There seemed
to be no specific problems or negative elements, so that no conclusions
were reached on how to retain members.
In September 2006, the Committee contracted with INALINK (a member
relations company based in Pittsburgh) for a pilot Lapsed Member
Recovery Program to identify the reasons why individuals decided not to
renew their membership with AVS, and also to identify the needs of
members. AVS provided INALINK with 1,000 lapsed member contacts (all
2005 non-renewers and 2004 non-student renewers), and INALINK made two
contact attempts per lapsed member. Members were offered the opportunity
to renew on the spot and receive all 2006 and 2007 benefits. If a member
declined to renew, he/she was asked the reason. INALINK reached 253
people and 92 members were recovered. A similar contract in 2007
recovered over 160 members.
The Associate Member category had been
eliminated in 2003, but a proposal was made in 2006 to re-introduce it,
with a fee of $20, to provide low-cost access to an underserved market
segment, such as secondary school educators, B.S. degree holders, and
non- degreed industry workers. The standard membership fee in 2006 was
$95.
The 2007 membership numbers may be misleading because, for the first
time, automatic membership was given to all non-member Symposium
attendees. However, only 20% (163 of 880) of those individuals renewed
for 2008 and, although the total number of 2008 membership renewals
(~3,200) was approximately the same as in 2007, the total membership was
lower because there were fewer new members. In 2008, membership for all
Symposium attendees was embedded in the Symposium fee structure; 531
members were renewed for 2009 and 640 who were not previously members
were now members for 2009.
The decrease in membership over the decade averaged about 230 per year,
while the Symposium attendance decreased by about 100 per year. There
was also a 25% annual turnover in members, with a surprising 74% of
student members electing not to renew their membership, far higher than
would be expected from the graduation of students. Comparable societies
did not record a decrease; in fact, MRS which membership had increased
by about 200 per year over the same period.
For 2010, 603 full and 403 student members resulted from Symposium
attendance; 30% of the full members were new to AVS. A special
promotion, with reduced fees, was offered to those who joined before
January 31, 2010; 58 new members joined in order to qualify for the JVST
page charge waiver for member authors. However, 1,414 of the 2009
members did not renew.
For 2011, an Early Career Membership category was initiated for those
who were not students and had attained his/her highest academic degree
no more than five years prior to the application for membership. These
members had all the rights and privileges of full members, but at a
reduced rate membership rate of $60. This category covered Post-Docs who
had previously been non-voting members.
To encourage Chapters to recruit new members, all U.S.-based chapters
were offered a $10 rebate for all new members from their area who joined
AVS within a designated two-month period in 2012, In 2012, both the
first and corresponding authors of a paper published in an AVS journal
were made members for that year; this added 74 new members. Attendees at
some topical conferences were also given membership; the ICMCTF
conference added 351 full members and 187 student members.
Although membership had increased in
2013 to 4677 from the lowest level in 2010, the increase was actually
due to these various new ways of qualifying for membership, but these
new members often did not renew so that the turnover of members was
still very high, about 32% in 2013.
In 2013,
the Board approved a new member category, Technical Specialist, which
requires a minimum of two years full‐time employment or experience in a
field of interest to AVS, or a minimum of a BS degree, or equivalent
experience, in a relevant science or engineering field. The person
should carry out work that assists in the advancement and development of
science/technology, which may be in a research laboratory or a teaching
laboratory in support of science/engineering classes. Dues and member
benefits are comparable to those of Early Career membership, but they do
not receive Physics Today. Annual dues were set at $45, the same as for
Early Career members.
Analysis of industrial membership, which had increased from 998 in 2011,
to 1020 in 2012, and to 1249 in 2013 showed that this was mainly due to
symposium attendance or JVST authorship; the number of renewed
industrial members had been approximately 900 for the past two years.
Declining membership is not an indicator of reduced activity in the
range of topics covered by the AVS, but of the changes in industrial
organization and the workplace. There has always been a significant
turnover of the membership, with new members replacing others who had
probably moved out of the field. There is, however, a general trend for
individuals not to identify with one society throughout their career,
even as their interests change, but to become members only when their
current technical interests align with those of a society. Over the
years, a number of people retained their AVS membership even when their
current career did not involve AVS topics. The sterling example is Rudy
Koehler, who was a Founder Member and a Sixty Year Member, even though
he has not been involved in “vacuum” for over fifty years!
The increase in student members has been encouraged by AVS to promote
more involvement of younger scientists in society activities. The
initial formation of Student Chapters during 2003 had the same
objective. The number of Student Chapters has increased to eleven over
the decade. Hopefully, some of these young members will see their
careers develop in step with the society’s topics and retain their
involvement, and membership, in the AVS.
It is, perhaps, inevitable that, with the somewhat transient nature of a
fraction of the membership, the interest of the membership in the
governance of AVS has declined over the years, at least as indicated by
the return rate of the annual ballot. While about 40% of the members
voted in the annual elections in Era Two, this has declined to 18% in
2004 and to 15.8% by 2005. With a large membership, it is inevitable
that fewer members have direct contact with the nominees and thus have
less incentive to vote. Although the introduction of electronic voting
has made it easier to cast a vote, especially for members outside the
USA, it has not reversed the decline in membership.
The five founding, and continuing, members of the Society became the
first Fifty Year Members and five others joined the Forty Year Members
group [Forty&FiftyYearMembers]
in 2003. Unfortunately, only two of the founding members, Collin
Alexander and Rudy Koehler, were able to attend the Ceremony at the AVS
50th International Symposium; Rudy Koehler was also the second
President. At the Awards Reception, following the Ceremony, Collin and
Rudy cut the birthday cake for the first decade of the Society. Another
four cakes, one for each decade, were cut by Presidents who served
during that decade. A group photo of all these Presidents was taken
after the Awards Ceremony. In an appropriate touch, the helium-filled
balloons, with AVS logo, were anchored to the tables by vacuum flanges
provided by one of the exhibitors.
Any new Honorary Members of AVS are announced at the end of the Award
Ceremony each year. Usually, there are one or two new Honorary Members,
but there was no appointment in 2010. This is a very restricted group
with stellar credentials. The list comprises nine former AVS Presidents,
an IUVSTA President, an AIP Executive, JVST editors, Division Chairs,
Conference Chairs, etc.
Honorary members (2003-2013)
2003 |
H Frederick Dylla, Gary E McGuire |
2004 |
Art O Fuente, J William Rogers, Jr. |
2005 |
Gerry Lucovsky |
2006 |
Al Czanderna |
2007 |
Paula Grunthaner |
2008 |
Eric Kay |
2009 |
Rudolf Ludeke, William D Sproul |
2010 |
N/A |
2011 |
Robert A Childs |
2012 |
Cedric Powell |
2013 |
Dave Castner, Steve Rossnagel |
2014 |
John N Russell, Jr. |
Membership management was transferred from SLACK to Convention Data
Services (CDS) effective January 1, 2003. The growing use of the
internet extended to membership renewal with the web-based renewal
system being implemented in September, 2002, and advertised by e-mail
through February 2003. Anyone who did not renew by February 15, 2003,
was placed on suspension; the grace period was extended an extra two
extra weeks beyond the normal January 31 deadline to allow for any
problems associated with changing membership management systems. The new
Automated Membership Management System (AMMS) was operational in early
2003. The SLACK database was transferred on December 27, 2002, with no
major issues.
Implementation of the Corporate Membership Program was a joint venture
between the Membership and Exhibitors and Manufacturers Committees and
the staff. Benefits include recognition in AVS literature, a plaque, a
link to the corporation’s website from the AVS website, free use of the
career services center, free literature display at AVS-related meetings,
voting benefits equal to one member, single subscriptions to Physics
Today and the AVS Newsletter, and short course discounts for one
attendee.
The initial Corporate Members in 2003
were A&N Corporation, Advanced Energies, Inc. Altair Technologies,
Kratos Analytical, Omicron Nanotechnology USA , Process Materials, Inc.,
Quesant Instrument Corporation, VAT, Inc., Jobin Yvon, Inc., IGC
Polycold Systems. and Vacutron Technologies and 15 new companies joined
the program in 2004. The AVS-60 Symposium Program listed 54 Corporate
members, five of those from the original list, although corporate name
changes make comparisons subject to error. The current Corporate Members
are listed on the website.
Membership Fee
Year |
Full |
Tech Spec |
Post/Doc Early Career |
Student |
Emerging Countries |
Corporate |
2004 |
$90 |
|
|
$25 |
|
|
2005 |
$90 |
|
|
$25 |
|
|
2006 |
$95 |
|
$45 |
$25 |
$35 |
$500 |
2007 |
$95 |
|
$45 |
$25 |
$35 |
$500 |
2008 |
$95 |
|
$45 |
$25 |
$35 |
$500 |
2009 |
$95 |
|
$45 |
$25 |
$35 |
$500 |
2010 |
$95 |
|
$45 |
$25 |
$35 |
$500 |
2011 |
$95 |
|
$45 |
$25 |
$35 |
$500 |
2012 |
$105 |
|
$55 |
$35 |
$45 |
$500 |
2013 |
$60 |
NA |
$45 |
$35 |
$35 |
$500 |
2014 |
$105 |
$45 |
$55 |
$35 |
$45 |
$500 |
Finance
The value
of the Society’s assets
over the years has varied more or less with the stock market since most
of the funds are invested. The sharp decrease near the end of Era 4
approximately followed the stock market trend and the value of
investment
increased during 2003 due to the recovery of the stock market. The
market and thus the Society’s value has had sharp up and downs since
then.
In 2005,
the total funds held in money market accounts, bonds, and certificates
of deposit was $1,594,054 and the market value of investments was
$5,112,715, for a total in unrestricted accounts of $6,706,768 compared
with $5,858,576 in 2004. In addition, the Awards Account increased by
10.2% to $535,506.
In 2007, the lease for 120 Wall Street was extended to December 31, 2018
at a rate of $32/sq.ft.: the original lease was due to expire in April,
2008. This was a significant saving since the then current rate
for new leases was $45/sq. ft.
A condominium office on the 15th floor
of 125 Maiden Lane in New York City was purchased on Sept 19, 2007 for
$2,494,000. The expected renovation, furniture, and moving costs for the
new office site were budgeted at $450,000, keeping the total site cost
just under $3,000,000. This location was 1.5 blocks from the rented
offices at 120 Wall Street. Although the new space was marketed at about
4,000 sq. ft., it was actually closer to 2800 sq. ft., slightly less
than the usable space at 120 Wall Street, and an additional 500sq. ft.
basement storage area was leased. In 1993, the office at 120 Wall Street
was originally to be purchased, but was never formally offered for sale
by the building owners and the lease costs were approximately
$190,000/year. It was estimated that the office relocation to Maiden
Lane would eventually lead to an expense reduction, after 2008, of
$125,000-$135,000/year.
Since the lease could not be voided, the Wall Street space was sub-let
to the OTR Media Group; this was expected to yield an annual profit of
$15,000. However, OTR had cash flow problems which resulted in
many late payments and finally, in 2010, AVS initiated eviction
proceedings. In early 2011, OTR was 4 months behind in rent payments
and had laid off 75% of their staff. A new subtenant was found for 120
Wall Street in 2011, but there was no profit being made on the rental.
The purchase of the new office took place when the stock market was
peaking; if the funds had not been used for the Maiden Lane office, the
Society’s investment account would have decreased by about $3,000,000
due to the large decline of the stock market. For 2008, the General
Investment Account decreased in value by 34.3%, and, as of December 31,
2008, the total market value of long-term investments was $3,194; the
comparable values for the previous years were $4,862,657 in 2007,
$6,570,206 in 2006, $5,753,516 in 2005, $5,216,222 in 2004; $4,680,387
in 2003 and $3,635,480 in 2002. The Society’s two investment accounts
decreased by 35.3% and 20.8% respectively in 2008, compared to decreases
in the Standard & Poors 500 of 34.0% and the NASDAQ Index of 35.1%. The
total 2008 income budget was $4,104,000; slightly below the 2007 budget
of $4,150,000. The total 2008 expense budget was $4,141,000 ($4,184,000
in 2007).
The lowest point for the stock market occurred in March 2009. As of
October 31, 2009, the total market value of the Society’s long-term
investments was $3,595,501 compared to $3,194,796 on December 31, 2008.
In 2011, the Society had a net loss of $65,000, part of which was due to
the Wall Street tenant being well behind in rent payments.
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy caused considerable damage to the Maiden Lane
office building. The timing was bad since it struck during the Symposium
so that the staff were in Tampa and not able to deal directly with the
situation. There was more than 2.5 m of water in the basement which took
out the entire building infrastructure (power, heat, telephone lines,
internet cables, etc.). In addition, AVS lost conference furniture and
AVS historical books/artifacts which were stored in the basement. The
office did not re-open till January 2, 2013. Recovery of some funds may
be obtained from the AVS insurance and from FEMA, but the process is not
simple!
The Leadership Fund was established in
2004 in honor of the 50th
Anniversary of AVS with the following contribution categories
named after famous vacuum scientists: Langmuir (>$4,000), Dushman
(>$1,000), Gaede (>$500, Torricelli (>$250), Pascal (>$100) and Boyle
(<$100). Funds from the Leadership Fund were to be used for outreach and
major initiative programs. A voluntary contribution line was added to
the membership renewal form and generated $1,500 in the first year and
has risen to over $27,000. Contributors to the Fund are listed on the
AVS website.
There has been a significant decrease
in the revenue from other sources; such as the Short Courses and the
Symposium, mirroring the situation of the semiconductor industry in the
USA. This industry had been a prime target of the AVS activities; the
Thin Film, Electronic Materials and Processing and the Plasma Science
and Technology Divisions and the Manufacturing Science and Technology
Technical Group have all been very strongly involved in this area, and
the topics of the Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Division have
been strongly associated. The number of R&D personnel now involved in
the development of semiconductor manufacturing processes has
significantly decreased with equipment suppliers now providing this
function for a number of manufacturers.
However, AVS is trying to establish an
important position in the new technologies in which R&D activity is
being pursued by a number of laboratories and companies. For example,
the Nanoscale Science and Technology and the Biomaterials Divisions are
involved in the development of technologies which will be the basis for
new industries.
Administration
As
approved by the Board in September, 2002, the AVS West operation moved
from Santa Clara, California to a 1,000 square foot office in Chico,
California, with the lease commencing on April 1, 2004. The rent was
$1,200/month for 2004-2005, $1,236 for 2005-2006, and $1,273 for
2006-2007.
Due to
the demolition of the old JVST Editorial Office building in Research
Triangle Park, North Carolina, the office relocated to a 980 square feet
office in a nearby building, with the lease commencing on October 23,
2003. The rent was $1,388.33/month rising to $1,562.28 for 2007-2008.
The staff moved into the new AVS
office at 125 Maiden Lane on July 24, 2008; the entire process went
smoothly with no disruption of service to members. Construction was
almost complete, although there were still some items to be addressed
(e.g., server cooling, projector installation, conference tables, etc.).
However, the storage room availability at 125 Maiden was delayed due to
a problem with the eviction of the previous tenant.
In June,
2003, Nancy Hammond, who had served AVS for 19 years as
Executive Secretary, and was an
Honorary Member, died in New York. She was
remembered during the Awards Ceremony at the 50th Symposium.
Jeannette DeGennaro joined the AVS
staff on March 6, 2006 as AVS Exhibition and Sales Coordinator to manage
the Annual Symposium Exhibition. The Exhibition Management arrangements
with AIP were terminated. Jeannette had 23 years experience with Kratos
Analytical.
Becky York, JVST Editorial Office Supervisor, retired on February 29,
2008 after 19 years of service. Nancy Schultheis took over the position,
which was renamed Publications Office Manager, on March 1, and
represents AVS at AIP publication meetings.
The
current staff members and their titles are listed on the Website
AVS Staff (2004-2013)
Location |
Name |
Position |
Note |
New York |
Yvonne Towse |
Managing Director |
October 26, 1993 |
|
Keith Mitchell |
IT Systems/Web Administrator |
September 2, 1993 |
|
Angela Klink |
Member Services Administrator |
April 3, 1989 |
|
Peter Burke |
Financial Administrator |
January 5, 1998 |
|
Jeanette DeGennaro |
Exhibition & Sales Coordinator |
March 6, 2006 |
|
Steve Barker |
Electronic Services Assistant |
Died 2012 |
|
Ricky Baldeo |
Office Services Coordinator |
August 1, 2000 |
|
Brian Callahan |
Web Systems Coordinator |
April 1, 2013 |
Chico, CA |
Della Miller |
Marketing Communications & Event Manager |
June 1, 1999 |
|
Heather Korff |
Events/Office Coordinator |
April 1, 2000 |
North Carolina |
Becky York |
Editorial Office Supervisor |
Retired 2008 |
|
Nancy Schultheis |
Publications Office Manager |
September 15, 1998 |
|
Mary Fausten |
Editorial Assistant |
March 3, 2008 |
|
Jennifer Schreiner |
Editorial Assistant |
January 9, 2006 |
|
Estelle Stansbury |
Editorial Assistant |
March 20, 2000 |
|
Tonya Yandle |
Editorial Assistant |
October 18, 2005 |
In 2008, the Board voted to change
Yvonne Towse’s title from AVS Administrative Director to AVS Managing
Director to more accurately reflect her role within AVS.
On January 11th, 2012, Steve Barker,
the Electronic Services Assistant in the New York office collapsed on
his way to work and died. He had worked in the office for 11 years. In
2013, Brian Callahan joined the New York staff as Web Systems
Coordinator.
The New York office staff had a
“workout” on August 14, 2003, when the power failed in New York and
large areas of the North-East US and Ontario; they again had to walk
down the stairs from the 32nd floor and find their way home without the
trains running. Yvonne Towse had another trying trip home from the
office in October due to the crash of the Staten Island ferry which
prevented the operation of the service for the rest of the day.
In 2013, Hurricane Sandy caused severe
disruption to property in the New York, including flooding the Maiden
Lane office. The timing was especially bad, coming at the same time as
the Symposium in Tampa! Keith Mitchell immediately rerouted AVS NY
computers through an external host and the staff worked at home for two
months using the AVS remote cell network. It was a very difficult
period, but all major project deadlines were met.
In early 2007, Convention Data
Services (CDS) informed AVS that they would no longer support the
Automated Membership Management System (AMMS) which they had built for
AVS in 2002. AVS negotiated a transition plan with CDS continuing to
provide support through 2007 at a 50% discount. After bugs were
corrected AVS contracted for support with T. Herer who had originally
developed the system and AVS no longer relied on CDS to act as a
middleman.
With the
goal of being ‘paperless,’ wherever possible, as of January 1, 2009, the
Merrill Lynch checking account was moved to Commerce Bank and the
Citibank credit card account will also be closed.
The
annual contract with AIP Career Services was renewed through May, 2007,
for the online career center. Job seekers could use this service
free-of-charge and employers paid a fee to post positions. AIP provided
monthly reports detailing applicants, employers, postings, etc. The
annual development cost was $1,500 whereas the previous provider,
CareerWeb, had charged $7,500/year and was increasing their fee to
$10,000/year.
A new AVS website was launched on
April 20, 2004 but, by 2007, given the growing use of the Internet,
another attempt was made, by the Web Committee, chaired by Paula
Grunthaner, to re-design the website to make it easier to find
appropriate information. This is probably a task which has to be
undertaken every few years as AVS and its members find additional uses
for the Internet.
The Internet has made it possible to
carry out much of the business of the Society more rapidly and with
reduced costs. When a Board meeting in December, 2003, New York had to
be cancelled due to snow, most of the meeting agenda, including the
budget discussion, was carried out using electronic means, although
still including the telephone! It seems reasonable that, in future,
meetings will be held by video conferencing without Board members
leaving home.
Partially due to the ease of
communication, however, it seems likely that the AVS staff will be
called upon to do more for more people. Already many of the Chapters
have asked the office to carry out much of their administration,
including financial affairs. The advantage is that it relieves
volunteers from doing jobs in which they lack the expertise which
resides in the staff, so that the volunteers can make the most of their
increasingly restricted “free” time for the technical aspects of chapter
activities., such as selecting topics for a symposium.
The AVS website provides information
on the different awards, at both Society and Division/Group level, as
well as procedures for application.
At the
Awards Ceremony in Baltimore (2003), in addition to the usual awards
given for technical accomplishments, there was a special recognition of
the 50th anniversary of the Society. There was also another “first” with
the whole ceremony run by women; the President, Dawn Bonnell, the Chair
of the Scholarships & Awards Committee, Donna Bakale-Sherwin, and Angela
Klink from the New York office. Angela had been responsible for all the
details associated with the awards for many years, ensuring that the
Committee both received and provided all the information required to
make its selections. In recognition, she was presented with an award of
her own!
Awards
Committee
(chair in bold)
Year |
|
|
|
2004 |
John Weaver
Robert Hamers |
Charles Duke
Roger Stockbauer |
Frederick Dylla
Paula Grunthaner |
2005 |
Theodore Madey
William Sproul |
Charles Duke
Roger Stockbauer |
Frederick Dylla
Paula Grunthaner |
2006 |
Theodore Madey
William Sproul |
Rudolf Ludeke
Susan Sinnott |
Frederick Dylla
Paula Grunthaner |
2007 |
Theodore Madey
William Sproul |
Rudolf Ludeke
Susan Sinnott |
Steven George
Buddy Ratner |
2008 |
Steven George
Buddy Ratner |
Rudolf Ludeke
Susan Sinnott |
Stacey Bent
Rudolf Trump |
2009 |
Steven George
Buddy Ratner |
Rachel Goldman
Kathryn Wahl |
Stacey Bent
Rudolf Trump |
2010 |
Julia Fulghum
Stella Pang |
Rachel Goldman
Kathryn Wahl |
Stacey Bent
Rudolf Trump |
2011 |
Julia Fulghum
Stella Pang |
Rachel Goldman
Kathryn Wahl |
Michael Grunze
John Russell |
2012 |
Julia Fulghum
Stella Pang |
Ellen Fisher
Neal Shinn |
Michael Grunze
John Russell |
2013 |
Shirley Chiang
Peter Sheldon |
Ellen Fisher
Michael Williams |
Michael Grunze
John Russell |
Another
indication of the “internationalization” of the Society, the Medard W
Welch Award was presented to Matthias Scheffler from Germany, the Albert
Nerken Award to Peter Barna from Hungary, and two of the newly elected
Fellows came from Italy and Japan.
Major Awards
Year |
Medard W. Welch |
Gaede-Langmuir |
John A. Thornton |
Albert Nerken |
Peter Mark |
2003 |
Matthias Scheffler |
|
William Sproul |
Peter Barna |
Charles Ahn |
2004 |
Rudolf M Trump |
Kunio Takayanagi |
|
Johan Fremerey |
Kathryn W Guarini |
2005 |
Charles S Fadley |
|
Stan Veprek |
Christopher R Brundle |
Jane P Chang |
2006 |
John C Hemminger |
Leonard J Brillson |
|
Siegfried Hofmann |
Mark C. Hersam |
2007 |
Jerry Tersoff |
|
Stephen J. Pearton |
Richard J Colton |
W M M Kessels |
2008 |
Miquel Salmeron |
Daniel Auerbach |
|
Seizo Morita |
Sergei Kalinin |
2009 |
Robert J Hamers |
|
Frances A Houle |
Donald R Baer |
Beatriz Roldan Cuenya |
2010 |
Mark J Kushner |
Gerald Lucovsky |
|
Fan Ren |
Arutiun Ehiasarian |
2011 |
Wilson Ho |
|
Vincent M Donnelly |
John E Rowe |
Mohan Sankaran |
|
2012 |
Yves Chabal |
Dietrich Menzel |
|
Sven Tougaard |
E. Charles Sykes |
2013 |
Chris G Van de Walle |
|
Ivan Petrov |
Howard A Padmore |
Daniel Gunlycke |
George T Hanyo Award
Ernest Sammann (2003), Richard E.
Muller (2004), Arthur Ellis (2010),Jonathan Koch (2011), Percy Zahl
(2012), Steven R Blankenship (2013)
John L
Vossen Memorial Award
Jacqueline C Kane (2004)
In 2007, it was decided that all future recipients of the Albert Nerken
Award should be asked to present an invited lecture at the Symposium.
The winners of all other major AVS awards (Welch, Gaede-Langmuir,
Thornton, and Mark) receive this honor, but the Nerken Award had never
included a lecture.
F. Brennen,
Veeco Senior Director of Marketing Communications, enthusiastically
endorsed adding an honorary lectureship to the award protocol; Veeco is
a sponsor of the Award.
In 2009, the amount of the Mark, Thornton and Gaede-Langmuir
Awards was each reduced by $1,000 to partially compensate for providing
the recipients with free hotel accommodation for the length of the
symposium.
All the Fellows are listed each year
in the Awards Ceremony brochure and all winners of major awards are
listed each year in the Symposium program book.
Fellows (2003-2013)
Year |
|
2003 |
Mariano Anderle, Masakazu Aono, Richard Cavanagh, Neelkanth
Dhere, Demetre Economou, Greg Exarhos, Robert Langley, Miquel
Salmeron, Peter Sherwood, Fred Stevie |
2004 |
John Abelson,Ilesanmi Adesida, Daniel Auerbach, Harold
Craighead, Galen Fisher, Joseph Gardella, Gregory Hebner,
Michael Henderson, John Looney, David Simons, Charles Tu |
2005 |
David Allara, Eray Aydil, Dawn Bonnell, Charles Bryson III,
Ulrike Diebold, James Engstrom, Ellen Fisher, Michael Grunze,
Siegfreid Hoffman, Silai Krishnaswamy, Falko Netzer, Carlo
Pantano, Greg Parsons, Ed Sickafus, Susan Sinnott, Lloyd
Whitman, Francisco Zaera |
2006 |
Stacey Bent, Shirley Chiang, Paul Chu, Lars Hultman, Shingo
Ichimura, David Norton, Fumio Ohuchi, Fan ren, John Russell,
Jr., Rudolf tromp, Kathryn Wahl, John Woollam |
2007 |
Paul Arnold, Peter Dowben, Calvin Gabriel, Joseph Geller, James
Hickman, C Mathew Mate, Meyya Meyyapan, Ralph Nuzzo, David Ruzic,
Bruce sartwell, Karen Seaward, Kevin Smith, Bruce terries,
Richard van de Sanden, Robert Wallace, Paul Weiss |
2008 |
Joseph Cecchi, Jingguang Chen, Julia Fulghum, Lucille Giannuzzi,
Ulf Helmersson, Chennupati Jagadish, Michael Kelly, Toshiaki
Makabe, Richard Smith |
2009 |
Flemming Besenbacher, John Boland, Ian Gilmore, Luke Hanley,
Gary McGuire, John Randall, Bridget Rogers, Seiji, Samukawa,
Irwin Singer, Jerry tersoff, Chris Van de Walle, Edward Yu |
2010 |
Jean-paul Booth, Nancy Burnham, Francis Chen, Stephen Chou, Ali
Erdimer, Vicki Grassian, Richard Kurtz, Vincent Smentkowski,
Sefik Suzer, Donald Tennant, Suntharampillai Thevusathan, Audrey
Voevodin |
2011 |
Andre Anders, David cahen, James Castle, Robert Ellefson,
Timothy Gessert, Satoshi Hamaguchi, Judith Harrison, Sherman
Rutherford, Stephanie Watts Butler, Jory Yarmoff |
2012 |
Lee Chen, Andrew Gellman, Rachel Goldman, Mark Hersam, Christian
Mitterer, Sudipta Seal, William Stickle, Roland Wiesendanger |
2013 |
Morgan Alexander, Jane Chang, mark Engelhard, Tony Heinz,
Melissa Hines, Aart Kleyn, Ganpati Ramanath, Frances Ross,
Jochen Schneider, Roger Tobin, Klaus Wandelt |
The stock market decline in 2008
decreased the Awards fund by more than 40% to $431,542, which
required a transfer of funds from the general Investment Advisory
Account so that no more than 4% of the Awards account was required for
the payment of the awards. As a result, the value of the Welch, Langmuir
and Thornton awards was reduced to $7,500 and the Mark Award was reduced
to $5,000. To maintain interest income for the award accounts, they were
augmented by $200,000 from the operating budget in 2009 and the awards
were paid out of the operating account until 2013 in order to reach the
goal of $1,000,000 in the Awards account. The annual awards payments are
about $42,000.
In 2005, Rey Whetten confirmed that only female students should be
eligible for the Nellie Yeoh Whetten Award. The Trustees would
make the award to the highest ranked female candidate from the pool of
AVS Graduate Student Award nominations, if the candidate meets the
criteria for this Top Level Award as judged by the Trustees. The
Trustees will select the Varian and Hoffman Award winners from the Top
Five ranked students within the Graduate Student Award nomination pool,
with the exception that if the Whetten Award winner is within the Top
Five, this candidate is not eligible for the Varian or Hoffman Award.
The remaining candidates among the Top Five (two if there is a Whetten
Award winner among the Top Five, or three if there is not) receive
Hoffman Scholarships.
The first Dorothy M. and Earl S.
Hoffman Award and Dorothy M. and Earl S. Hoffman Scholarships were
presented in 2003, in addition to the Nellie Yeoh Whetten Award, the
Russell and Sigurd Varian Fellowship and the Graduate Research Awards.
The previous limitation of the Varian Fellowship, that it be awarded
only to a student who had at least one remaining year of study before
graduation, was removed and the name was changed, for 2004, to the
Russell and Sigurd Varian Award.
The
finalists for the Graduate Students Awards are listed each year in both
the Symposium Program and the Awards Ceremony brochure. The winners of
the major student awards are then selected by the Trustees from this
group at the Symposium.
Major Student Awardees (2003-13)
Year |
Hoffman Award |
Hoffman Scholar |
Varian Award |
Nellie Yeoh Whetten Award |
2003 |
Kenneth A Bratland |
Gerald Taler,
David Xu |
John Kitchin |
Meredith Anderson |
2004 |
Michael Filler |
Jason Baxter,
Sergio Mendez |
Vassil Antonov |
Wensha Yang |
2005 |
Michael Zellner |
Nathan Guisinger, Brent Trainhaile |
Liam Pingree |
Natalie Farkas |
2006 |
Xingyi Deng |
Danquin Feng, Kiu Yuen Tse |
Gregory Ten Eyck |
Jessica Hilton |
2007 |
Thomas Mullen |
Saresh Donthu,
Jianguo Fan |
H Lee Mosbacher |
Jandrea Munro |
2008 |
Gregory Rutter |
Ajay Karakoti,
Fung Suong Ou |
|
Brittany Nelson-Cheeseman |
2009 |
Juan Carlos Rodriguez-Reyes |
Ensanf Fu,
Jian Shen |
Sudhakar Shek |
Sarah Bishop |
2010 |
Esther Amstad |
Cary Pint, Heather Tierney |
Christine Tan |
Xianyu Wang |
2011 |
Kangkang Wan |
Justice Aloboson. Joseph E Baio |
David Siegel |
Sondra Hollstrom |
2012 |
Davide Sangiovanni |
Ting Ying Chung, Alfsoon Soudi |
April Jewell |
Nour Nijem |
2013 |
Zhu Liang |
Tevis Jacobs,
Vincent Sauer |
Jason Kawasaki |
Indira Seshadri |
Graduate Student Awardees (2003-13)
2003 |
Kenneth A. Bratland, Dev Chidambaram, Wei Fan, Ajay
Kale, Tansel Karabacek, Joo-Han Kim, Emrah Ozensoy, Lucille
Teague, Edy Widjaja, Lizandra Williams, Nan Xia, Junqing Xie,
Jing Zhou |
2004 |
Teresa Barnes, Ivan Ermanoski, Eldad Herçeg, Jessica Hilton,
Daniela Kusmierek, Ina Martin, Byoung Koun Min, David
Rampulla, Luc Stafford,,Feng Tao , Terry Xu, Yuki Yoshida |
2005 |
Yanfeng Chen, Carolyne Dione, Xuying Dong, Janandi Krishnan,
Newton Samuel, Nenand Stojilovic, Fu Tang, Stéphane Turcotte |
2006 |
Rajiv Basu, Jean-Nicolas Beaudry, Chao-Min Cheng, Praneeth
Edirisinghe, Nuna Ghalichechian, In Kyo Kim, Chi-Yung Lee,
Manish Sharma, Ravi Todi, Pengpeng Zhang |
2007 |
Abhishek Agrawal, Daniel Killelea, Stephan Koev,
Satyanarayana Kuchibhatla, Elena Loginova, Michael Seman, Nathan
Yoder |
2008 |
Ghanashyam Londe, Carl Menning, Jian Shen |
2009 |
Atul Asati, Yongjun Liu, Dragos Seghete |
2010 |
Pendar Ardalan, Caitlin Howell, Jamie Reed |
2011 |
John G Gibbs, Andrew J. Lohn, Bingjun Xu |
2012 |
Justin Abell, David Reid, Weiting Yu |
2013 |
Bonggeun Shong, Ming Wei, Timothy Lawton, Xiaofeng Feng |
Three undergraduate student research
project awards were given in 2003 and were supported by a grant from
Thin Film Technology in Mankato, MN. Each award consists of up to
$1000 for equipment and supplies used by the student to successfully
complete an undergraduate research project related to subjects of
interest to the AVS. A student submits a proposal with a letter of
support from a faculty mentor at the university; both the student and
the mentor must be AVS members. In 2004, 5 students received awards and
the Mankato Area Foundation donated $3000.
In 2003, there were four applications
for the Vossen Award for school teachers and Jacqueline G. Kane of St.
Ursula Academy in Toledo, Ohio, won for her presentation,
“Quantification of Soil Contaminant Extraction. However, the funds were
depleted. Without further donations, it was decided to drop the Award
and name the Science Educators Workshop in memory of John Vossen.
In 2004, it was noted that the Awards
account had been shrinking due to investment conditions but the Hoffman
bequest provided a strong income stream for the various awards and
travel grants.
In 2009, Ted Madey’s family requested
that an AVS Award be established in his memory. Ted had served as
President of both AVS and IUVSTA. Because Ted had close ties with
Poland, from where his grandparents emigrated, the award would provide
travel grants for speakers to go to Poland. The family would provide
partial funding from a $150,000 endowment. Polish universities and the
Polish Vacuum Society agreed to cover the local costs. The Theodore E.
Madey Award for Surface Science and Scientific Exchange was established
in 2010. The first winner, in 2011, was John T Yates, Jr.
In 2010, the protocol for any new
“Named” Award was established. It had to be fully endowed, which was
defined as 40 times the award amount, which had to be at least $5,000.
The candidates had to have major contributions and be supported by at
least two divisions. Unlike other awards, a special committee would be
formed to review an application for the Madey Award before it was
submitted to the Trustees for approval.
In 2011, a new “Excellence in
Leadership” award was proposed by the Membership Committee. The aim was
to recognize individuals who not only excel in their field but have
mentored persons who might not otherwise have considered or had access
to opportunities in science, engineering and technology (including
persons with disabilities, women, and minorities) and who are students
at the K-12, undergraduate, or graduate education level, or early career
scientists, or engineers who have recently completed their degrees,
including postdoctoral fellows, assistant professors, and individuals in
the private sector. An application would be reviewed by the
Membership Committee and approved by the Board. The first winner was
Joseph A. Gardella, Jr.
Some divisions also presented awards
at the Symposium and the awardees are listed in the Symposium program
book. The Morton M Traum Award Surface Science Division Student Award
has been presented annually since 1981. The John Coburn and Harold
Winters Student Award in Plasma Science and Technology has been
presented each year since 1994, except for 1995. The Leo M Falicov Award
has been presented since 1999 by the Magnetic Interfaces and
Nanostructures Division. The Nanometer-scale Science and Technology
Division has presented a Student Award each year since 2002 as well as a
Recognition Award in 2001, 2004 and annually since 2009. The Thin Film
Division has presented the Paul H Holloway Young Investigator Award
since 2009; candidates must be within 7 years of their Ph. D being
awarded.
The Advanced Surface Engineering Division presents the R.F.
Bunshah Award at their Spring conference, ICMCTF.
Symposia
The AVS website provides current
information on AVS meetings and exhibits, with particular emphasis on
the annual International Symposium. There is also a Press/Media section
of the website which provides more detailed information.
In 1953, a
major reason for the formation of the society was the organization of a
symposium for the exchange of information between manufacturers and
users of vacuum equipment. The Symposium continues to be such a forum
but now for a much larger range of topics.
The 50th International Symposium and
Exhibition was held at the Baltimore Convention Center in November,
2003. It will long be remembered by the attendees, not only for the
program activities, but for the outstanding weather; it was almost 80ᵒF
for most of the week! However, a plenary speaker had to cancel because
of the widespread fires threatening Southern California! The anniversary
theme was evident in the advertising poster, in the program book, a
special 50th logo, and the registration badges. A 50th anniversary
“gold” lapel pin was also distributed.
Special sessions were held throughout
the week to highlight the anniversary, starting on Monday with “Fifty
Years of Vacuum Science and Technology”. The whole program contained
1435 papers, 216 of which were invited and 364 were given in two poster
sessions held in the Exhibition area. One of these was held during a
3-hour break in oral sessions on Wednesday. There were as many as
seventeen parallel sessions on topics ranging from vacuum equipment to
“Homeland Security.” The symposium had come a long way from the first
one in Asbury Park, where there was a total of thirty-five papers. The
visual aids for essentially all the oral papers were PowerPoint
presentations on laptop computers driving projectors. The member
registration fee was $490, compared to $15 in 1954; it had gone up by a
smaller factor than the number of papers, 1435 compared to 41, but of
course inflation had a major effect on the registration fee. The
attendance had increased by a smaller factor, from 307 to 1574.
One major difference over the fifty
years is the ratio of attendees at the symposium to papers presented. In
1954, the ratio was about 9, but is now less than 1. Of course, the
attendees in 1954 were almost all from industry, whereas they are
increasingly from academic and government laboratories, and about 20% of
them are students.
The 2003 program had contributions on
topics covered by all the Divisions and Technical Groups, and there were
also five topical conferences; two of these, on “Sputtering” and
“Quantitative Surface Analysis”, dealt with topics of long-standing
interest in AVS, one on “High-k Dielectrics and Devices” dealt with a
new development in semiconductor processing, also of long-standing
interest to AVS, while the other two, on “Contacts to Organic Materials”
and “Homeland Security,” expanded the scope of the Society. Together,
these five topical conferences provide a good example of the evolution
of the society over fifty years; the melding of new areas of research
and development into existing interests with the common basis in vacuum
equipment and processes.
The equipment show was now officially
named the Exhibition. In 2003, there were 168 companies occupying 204
booths; similar to 165 companies and 211 booths the previous year. Due
to the business climate, some companies chose not to attend; they were
concentrating on shows which had closer links to manufacturing. It
appeared that the increasing research flavor of the Symposium was
reducing the impact for the vendors. Thirty-five of the companies
identified themselves as suppliers to the nanoscale community and their
booths were clustered in a “pavilion.” However, only three of the many
companies which deal with the biomaterials sector showed interest in a
“bio pavilion”. Exhibitor Workshops were offered as part of the
Exhibition; they included presentations and demonstrations of the latest
technology developments by more than twelve companies.
The largest number of booths at any
exhibit was 365 in 1989, but there were only 162 companies occupying
them; there were actually a few more companies in 2003, but they
occupied only slightly more than half the number of booths. There are
now many fewer demonstrations of large pieces of equipment than was the
case in Era 3, when many companies actually operated Auger and SIMS
instruments during the exhibit and encouraged attendees to bring their
samples. Large deposition systems and a larger range of vacuum
components were also on display then. Now, video displays of such
equipment on a laptop is common and the trend seems likely to continue
as display capabilities improve. Holographic displays or direct links to
operational sites may become standard.
The 51st International Symposium and
Exhibition was held at the Anaheim Convention Center in November, 2004.
The weather was almost as warm as it had been the previous year! The
ASME conference and exhibit were also being held in the Convention
Center and the exhibit was open to AVS attendees; at least three of the
exhibitors had booths in both exhibits. The exhibitors were asked
whether they preferred the Monday-Wednesday or Tuesday-Thursday exhibit
schedule; about 70% of respondents preferred the former. However, the
opposite view was expressed by responding exhibitors in 2005! The change
back to Tuesday –Thursday was made for the 2006 Symposium to reduce
weekend travel for smaller vendors and costs for union labor.
A review of the exhibit in 2005
indicated that both the number of exhibitors and the attendance were
decreasing significantly, while the interests of symposium attendees did
not match the equipment exhibited. It was felt that AIP Show management
was not meeting the changes in attendees interests and that AVS was not
involved in managing the exhibit. As a result, Jeannette DeGennaro
joined the AVS staff on March 6, 2006, as AVS Exhibition and Sales
Coordinator to manage the Annual Symposium Exhibition.
At the 2006 Symposium in San Francisco, a Welcome Mixer was introduced
on Monday evening after the technical sessions. The event was designed
to create a lively, positive atmosphere from the start of the week,
promote attendee/exhibitor interactions, and encourage networking prior
to the opening of the Exhibit. In adddition to food, drinks and music,
there was an art contest, and an art show featuring the work of Kim
Dylla, Fred’s daughter. After the Mixer, her art was moved to the
Exhibit Hall, where there was also an Art Contest Display with over 40
entries; with first ($500), second ($250), and third ($100) place prizes
awarded. In front of this display was another innovation: eight 8x8
foot Exhibitor Table-Top Booths. Another innovation was a booth
advertising the 2007 Symposium in Seattle. A New Product and Exhibitor
Locator Service was initiated, allowing attendees to search for
exhibitors or products. Exhibitors were invited to promote products in
talks at Exhibitor Workshops; this was so popular that there was a
waiting list. Exhibitor Awards were sponsored by Advantage Business
Media, providing exhibitors an opportunity for publicizing products.
There were morning breaks with free coffee in the Exhibit Hall to enable
increased interaction between attendees and exhibitors. After a positive
experience with morning breaks in 2006 and 2007, afternoon breaks were
introduced at the 2008 Symposium with the lunch break reduced.
There was a significant shortfall in room pick-up at the Marriott Hotel
in San Francisco in 2006. Prior to the symposium, AVS issued a letter to
Marriott stating that the hotel should actively pursue resale of part of
the room block. As expected, only about 50% of the contracted rooms were
picked up, but Marriott did resell some rooms and then sent a bill of
$150,000 for the unsold rooms. With legal advice, AVS sent a Settlement
& General Release with a $25,000 check with the understanding that
neither party could pursue further damages.
The contracts for the symposia up to 2008 had been signed by Marion
Churchill a decade earlier, but attendance had decreased rather than
increased in that time so that less space was needed than had been
contracted for. When Della Miller signed her first contract for the 2009
Symposium in San Jose, she based it on the lower attendance.
It was decided in 2007 that the Program Vice-Chair for the International
Symposium should be Program Chair for the following year’s Symposium.
This was to provide continuity while offering a learning experience for
each Program Chair. For the 2007 Symposium, invited speakers were
required to submit an abstract because four invited speakers who did not
submit an abstract for 2006 did not attend the Symposium. However,
Thomas Beebe, the 2007 Vice-Chair was unable to serve as the 2008 Chair
and Bridget Rogers, who had been the Vice-Chair in 2007, took over as
the 2008 Chair.
Focus Topics sessions were introduced to the 2007 Symposium and expanded
in 2008 since they had a positive impact on divisions, leading to more
collaboration and better program coordination.
For the 2008 Exhibition, Hargrove Inc. took over as contractor from
Freeman Decorating and provided several new services including a
dedicated direct-dial phone line answered with the AVS Exhibit name, a
personalized approach to providing services to exhibitors, dedicated
exhibitor service staff and a service team structured to fit unique
Exhibit site requirements. Hargrove used a wireless service cart which
roamed the exhibit hall floor to assist exhibitors at their booth. The
new special attraction booths introduced in 2007 continued and a Massage
Bar was added. There were 134 exhibitors in 164 booths; 25 of the
exhibitors were new to AVS. Booth sales totaled $307,300; $46,568 was
received in sponsorship and $11,825 in advertising and 17
Exhibitor Workshops raised $4,000.
At the 2008 Symposium in Boston, a special session was organized by Neil
Shinn in honor of Ted Madey, a former AVS and IUVSTA President who died
quite suddenly.
For the 2009 Symposium (AVS-56), the Program Committee used a new
web-based abstract ranking system to assist in arranging the Symposium
program with the ultimate goal being an electronic program meeting.
There were 150 Exhibitors in 178 booths; 29 exhibitors were new to AVS.
Although the new events in the Exhibit Hall resulted in increased costs,
exhibit income had increased and other Symposium-related costs had
decreased. Exhibit income in 2005 (Boston) was $360,000 compared to
$430,770 in 2009.
The change of show decorator in 2008 had resulted in savings of
$75,000/year, security expenses were reduced by securing additional
bids, and the number of sponsor-subsidized events decreased costs.
Additional savings were achieved by reducing other costs, such as hotel
attrition, and by working closely with Experient, the housing services
provider. Reduced costs made it possible to add new features to make the
Exhibition more attractive.
For the 2010 Symposium, in Albuquerque, Experient took over the
registration services. The limit of one presentation per person was
modified to allow an author to present one oral and one poster
presentation. It was hoped that this would reduce the number of no-shows
in poster sessions, but it was noted that allowing an author to give
multiple papers had become a problem at the International Coatings and
Thin Films conference which had imposed the single presentation per
person limit at the 2010 conference! The exhibit had 139 exhibitors, of
whom 24 were new to AVS. .Although booth sales are down by $10,000,
there was an increase in advertising and sponsorship sales. The AVS-57
Product Award winners were published in the January 2010 issue of
Physics Today.
Overall attendance in Albuquerque was significantly lower than for the
previous four years; while those attending the symposium decreased by 5%
from the previous year, the number attending only the Exhibition was
only 30% of the number in 2009 in San Jose and 50% of the 2008 number in
Boston. Overseas attendance was also lower in 2010, but there was
increaded attendance from government labs in New Mexico.
The vendor company a2z, which had provided the exhibit website software
advised AVS that the software was obsolete and would have to be updated
for 2011 but the new software, including new features, would reduce the
cost by $2,200 in 2011 and to $6,000 in 2012.
Booth
prices for AVS-58 in 2011 were increased by $100 to compensate for
providing lunch to the exhibitors. There were 19 new exhibitors out of
the total of 133. This meant that there had been about 150 new
exhibitors in the past 5 years. However, most of these did not become
regular exhibitors because they did not get enough new business. Since
the AVS Symposium is so topically broad, exhibitors average about 25
leads during the 3 days, whereas exhibors at more
topically-focused meetings, such as SVC, MRS, or ICMCTF, usually get
about 150 leads. Also, while AVS encourages increased student
participation in the Symposium to compensate for lower participation by
industrial and academic attendees, students do not bring business to the
exhibitors.
For AVS-58, an enhanced Technical
Program flier was mailed instead of the usual postcard. It described the
symposium and related activities in more detail and included an overview
of the program and invited speakers. Webinars associated with AVS-58
were given by selected speakers. Some presentations were pre-recorded
and others recorded during the Symposium, not “live” but in a designated
recording room after the session. However, speakers had concerns about
posting their talks on the Internet and pre-recording was usually not
possible because speakers did not have presentations ready before the
Symposium. Initially 10 speakers had agreed to the recording, but only
half of them actually did so.
For AVS-59 in 2012, the Technical
Program was printed only once, but it included 74 late breaking
abstracts in the appropriate sessions. In previous years, these were
included in the second printing only, but this caused confusion. The
AVS-59 Welcome Mixer in Tampa was held outside for the first time; and
the location on the waterfront in the sunshine was very pleasant. Under
a $25,000 contract, Blue Sky Broadcasting was to record the slides
with synchronized audio for about 340 talks in 34 sessions in 4
rooms. The content could then be delivered by posting on the AVS
website, by DVDs or by Blue Sky hosting talks on their website with a
special portal for AVS. However, each presenter was required to sign a
release form or to opt out should they not wish to be recorded and most
presenters refused to be recorded.
Special events were held at AVS-60, in
Long Beach, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Society. For the
first time, instead of the Program Committee meeting in person, a
virtual program meeting was held electronically, with considerable
savings in both time and costs. A special issue of JVST A contained, as
well as papers, the AVS Timeline and photos of events and people from
the 60 years of AVS; this included a photo of each President. The
Timeline is available on the AVS website.
A Past Presidents Panel, Dawn Bonnell, Fred Dylla, Greg Exarhos, Paul
Holloway, Bill Sproul and Joe Greene, gave some “Historical Perspectives
of the AVS”. The Plenary Lecturer was Jan-Eric Sundgren, the 1995 winner
of the John Thornton Memorial Award who discussed the role of industry
in developing science policy.
A new AVS International Symposium mobile app was released for Apple and
Android smart phones; the content included presentations, exhibitors,
scheduling capability, maps, city guide, etc. It was advertised in the
Symposium program book. There were 148 Exhibitors, including 34
first-time Exhibitors, and 261 booths; 47 Exhibitors were either
Corporate members or AVS-60 Sponsors. Exhibit income was 7% higher than
in 2012.
Topical
Conferences
Several Divisions hold topical
conferences with the Advanced Surface Engineering Division organizing
the oldest of these; the 41st ICMCTF was held in San Diego in 2014. It
has been a strong international conference with 1,000 attendees, 75% of
which are non-U.S. More than 800 abstracts were submitted for the 2008
Conference, and the abstract selection meeting was held in Zurich; both
the General and Program Chairs were from Europe.
The Thin Film Division has held an
annual conference on Atomic Layer Deposition since 2001.
The SSD holds an annual Surface
Analysis conference; the 35th was held in 2013.
Other Topical Conferences which have
been co-sponsored or endorsed by AVS are: the International Conference
on the Physics and Chemistry of Semiconductor Interfaces (PCSI-40 in
2014)), The International Conference on Electron, Ion, and Photon Beam
Technology and Nanofabrication (EIPBN), The International Conference on
Ion Implantation Technology, the International Conference on Nanoscience
and Technology, the International Conference on Molecular Beam
Technology, the Physical Electronics Conference, and Vacuum
Nanoelectronics.
Since 2011, Topical Conferences
related to AVS have been listed at the back of the Symposium program
book. Current topical conferences are listed on the AVS website.
Webinars are a new method of
communication with members who have an interest in a particular topic.
The assumption is that the more content available on our website, the
greater will be the benefit to members. However, they may be implemented
in different ways; either free to members or symposium attendees, or by
pay-per-view. Although all sessions at the annual ALD meeting are
recorded and attendees receive a CD containing all talks, with the CDs
also available for sale, speakers at the International Symposium have
been reticent to have their talks recorded.
Publications
The AVS website contains both a Publications Library and a Technical
Library section. The Technical Library contains programs and
presentations from symposia and conferences, a list of books,
monographs, videos and webinars which are accessible from the MyAVS
site. The Publications Library includes the AVS journals and Physics
Today.
Publications have been the main source of AVS funds during the past
decade, with annual profits reaching nearly $1,000,000 in the middle of
the period. A new journal, BioInterphases, was launched in 2006.
In 2006, the AVS journal prices were increased by 3% for 2007 with no
change in charges for the new journal, Biointerphases.
In 2009, it was decided to establish a more modern interface for
manuscript submission, review, and publication so as to fully transition
to an electronic manuscript submission, peer review, and editorial
system by the end of 2010, utilizing AIP’s existing Peer X-Press
web-based manuscript submission and peer-review service. The transition
cost was about $130,000 over 3 years.
Journal
of Vacuum Science and Technology
The
Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology
continues to publish high quality
papers and maintains a solid reputation in the scientific community. The
publication process is now totally electronic and most members access
the papers via the Internet, with the number of printed copies
decreasing. This has had a significant impact on the cost of delivering
the journal content. Although the trend seems likely to continue, print
copies will remain key for archiving purposes. It seems unlikely that
people would be comfortable relying on electronic versions only, and
there are certain occasions where a printed version seems very
appropriate.
One such case is the special
Supplement
issue of JVST A, “50
Years of Science, Technology, and the AVS (1953-2003)” , which was
published during 2003. It contained a number of papers on technical
developments in the various topical areas of AVS during the existence of
the Society. The topics were “Vacuum Science and Technology”, edited by
Paul Redhead and Fred Dylla; Surface Science, edited by Charlie Duke;
Thin Films, edited by Joe Greene, Plasma Science and Technology, edited
by Joe and Linda Cecchi; Electronic Materials and Processing, edited by
Len Brillson; Nanometer Science and Technology, edited by Jim Murday;
and Surface Engineering, edited by Bill Sproul. Copies were mailed to
all the members and were given to attendees at the 50th Symposium.
A 60th Anniversary Special Commemorative Issue of JVST A [Vol 31, #5]
contained a range of articles which resulted in “an eclectic mixture of
articles reminding us of the past and imagining the future” according to
the special editors of the issue, Eray Aydil, Susan Sinnott and Susan
Burkett. They noted that “neither Bill Gates nor Steve Jobs had yet been
born” when the AVS was founded. The issue also contained the History
Timeline and some photos of events throughout the 60 years, and a few of
the historical trivia questions which had been running all year in the
Newsletter.
E-first publication was initiated for
the 2003 issues of the journal. It allowed for web posting and
electronic viewing of individual articles (regular submissions and
Letters) when their final citations were ready. The articles may appear
on-line more than two months prior to the printing of the journal. Other
articles (e.g., conference proceedings, reviews, shop notes, and brief
reports) appear when the issue is ready to close, or about 1-2 weeks
prior to printing. The 2003 January/February issue of JVST A was
posted in mid-November, 2002, and printed in late January. The
March/April 2003 was posted in mid-January, and closed in late February.
The January/February issue of JVST B 21 was posted in mid-December, and
printed in mid-February.
The failure of RoweCom, Inc resulted
in some revenue loss in 2003. The company had already collected $108,205
in advance for library subscriptions for the 2003 issues of JVST and
passed it on to its parent company, Divine Inc., in the form of a loan
repayment instead of forwarding them to AIP, the publisher of JVST. Many
other journals were also affected and the potential impact to AIP in
lost revenue was significant. Other publishers were also involved and
AIP participated, with Elsevier and IEEE, in legal action. The
courts ruled that all publishers would be considered creditors so that
about 30% of the funds were recovered.
In 2004, it was noted that there has been an overall decrease in the
number of JVST pages published over the previous 10 years. While
the JVST B page count had been constant, JVST A had steadily decreased.
The Publications Committee recommended a 9.5% increase in subscription
fees for JVST and SSS in 2005. In 2007, the page charge to authors was
$95, but editors could waive charges; 66% of authors did pay. The policy
since 2000 had been to slowly decrease the page charge to zero because
authors and their institutions are reluctant to pay page charges, and
conference organizers seek the lowest cost option for proceedings
papers. However, the page count was also decreasing. While the target
was 6,000 pages for both JVSTA and JVSTB, actual numbers had decreased
to about 5,000, mostly due to fewer conference proceedings.
Subscription fees for JVST A & B were increased by 3% for 2008 but,
starting in 2009, there was no page charge if one of the authors was an
AVS member.
The impact factor for JVST A had been slowly decreasing since 2003 and
had fallen to 1.4 in 2006 and to 1.1 in 2009, but the JVST B factor had
remained constant at about 1.6.
On September 1, 2010 E Aydil rook over as Editor-in-Chief from G.
Lucovsky. G. McGuire and J. Chang were Assistant Editors. It was noted
that no member of the Board had actually submitted a paper in the past
year and some members had not submitted for many years!
In 2011, an article identifier number scheme was introduced, replacing
sequential page numbering. This scheme was used by several journals and
allows an article to be placed in the correct section of a journal
without the difficulties associated with consecutive pagination.
Articles are citable as soon as they appear online. Conference papers
were no longer identified as proceedings articles but were in “Special
Issues,” with no more than one in any JVST issue. Revenue had decreased
by about 14% since 2007 and advertising revenue was about half the 2007
figure while subscriptions were decreasing by about 8% each year.
Journal subscription rates for 2012 were increased by 3%. In an attempt
to attract new readers to JVST, an agreement was signed with DeepDyve to
include papers in their rental program for $1.99 per article.
In 2012, the Editor recorded a “How to
Write Journal Articles” webinar, which was available on the JVST
website. To increase interest, free membership was granted to all
corresponding and first authors in the Peer Xpress system. Appreciation
programs were implemented whereby authors of the 20 most downloaded
papers received a thank you note from the editor, and reviewers received
thank you notes and pens.
The
number of papers published in JVST A increased in 2012 after a decrease
in previous years but the number in JVST B continued to decrease
significantly. The impact factors were still low, at 1.43 and 1.27,
despite stricter acceptance criteria.
Surface Science Spectra
In 2002,
Surface Science Spectra, like JVST, became an "e-first publication"
in which articles are available on the website as soon as they are
ready. Instead of the four issues per year as in the past, only
one paper copy of the entire volume was printed and mailed; this began
with Volume 9.
Since its
foundation, SSS had struggled to maintain its planned schedule. By the
time of the 50th Symposium, Volume 9 was about 90% complete and it was
completed by the end of 2003, reducing the delay in the publication
schedule to about nine months. In 2004, Volume 10 was available on the
web.
Volume 11 was published In 2006 with Volume 12, devoted to high-quality
polymer data, in production and expected to close in the second quarter
of 2006. However, online publication was delayed because the SSS Data
Center had to change its database-to-tagged-text routines in order to
accommodate AIP’s move to XML. However, subscription fees were increased
by 3% for 2008. Volumes 14 and 15 were published in 2010, maintaining a
one year delay from the schedule.
In 2011, James Castle took over as
Editor-in-Chief with Richard T. Haasch as Editor and D. Rubin acting as
Data Center Manager, which includes the development and maintenance of
databases and the Web-based Contributor Form (WCF), correspondence with
authors regarding the WCF, coordination with AIP journal production,
providing agendas for weekly editorial teleconferences, consulting with
the SSS Editorial Office and staff and Editorial Board Meetings at AVS
International Symposia. A web-based tutorial was posted on the website
to advise people on how to use the journal.
Volumes 19 and 20 were published in 2012 and 2013, so that the journal
was on schedule for the first time since it was founded. An online video
was available to show how to download data and upload contribution. The
time from submission to posting an accepted article online decreased
from 1117 days for volume 18, to 393 days for volume 19, and to 200 days
for volume 20.
The SSS income was $60,000 in 2009, mainly from institutional
subscribers, and expenses were $38,000. Through Volume 14, there had
been 524 submissions from 495 authors representing 110 laboratories in
23 countries; 4,330 spectra had been published from 1,122 specimens used
in the analyses.
In 2010, SSS online was provided free to all AVS members, removing the
$100 subscription fee. At that time, there were just 23 online members
and this declined to 17 in 2011. Through Volume 16, there had been 543
submissions, 507 authors from 24 countries, and 4,641 published spectra.
Biointerphases
In 2005,
Professor M. Grunze of the University of Heidelberg agreed to serve as
Editor of the proposed new biomaterial interfaces journal with Professor
T. Chilkoti of Duke University as Associate Editor. Pending a decision
on the name of the new journal, several web domain names were registered
at a cost of $647.60; these included Biointerphases.com,
Biointerphases.org, Biointerphase.com, and Biointerphase.org. In
addition, application was made for an ISSN from the Library of Congress,
a Coden from CAS, trademark protection, and a posting on PubMed and
Medline (Search Services) pending their review of four Journal issues.
The Journal was launched in 2006 with the first issue posted on the
website:
http://avs.scitation.org/journal/bip. The objective was to ensure
that the submission-to-publication time was not longer than 45 days. In
2007, an experiment on Open Access was conducted with AIP. A poster was
designed to promote the journal and efforts were made to secure listings
on Web-Of- Science, PubMed, etc. 172 pages were published in 2007.
In 2010, Biointerphases was selected to be indexed and included in
MEDLINE, ensuring that articles would reach the full audience of
biomedical and biomaterial scientists worldwide.
In 2011, the Editor led an effort to increase visibility and the number
of submissions. This included an invited lecture at the Symposium, and
student poster prizes. AVS also contacted a number of publishers
inviting proposals for publishing the journal. A proposal from Springer
was accepted and files transferred to them, but AVS was still the owner
and retained full editorial control. A new cover was introduced. The
impact factor at that time was 3.1, an increase from 2.5 in 2010. The
content was available on SpringerLink starting Jan 1, 2012.
About 28 articles were published in
2011 compared to 35 in 2010; the largest number was 50 in 2008. Springer
published a special issue, “In Focus: Nanomedicine” in January, 2012,
with 15 articles. But submission rates continued to be much lower than
the 150 papers needed to meet costs. Attempts were made, with Springer,
to shift the journal focus to include bio-interfaces.
In 2012, the journal was transferred to the Biomed Central (BMC)
publishing platform, which includes the online peer-reviewing system,
production, and online presentation of the journal and articles.
However, in 2013, there were still fewer submissions annually than the
60 called for by the agreement with Springer and the impact factor
continued to decrease. A significant fraction of submissions were
directly due to the Editor’s request to colleagues.
Newsletter
All
the newsletters from 1960 through 1989 were converted to text files by
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and posted on the AVS website as
pdfs which contain all the information of the originals, misspellings
included! The format differs somewhat from the originals; they are all
single column layouts whereas, from 1961 through 1988, the layout was
dual columns, with triple columns introduced in 1989. This simplified
the conversion process while retaining the content. Through 1988, color
was used only in the banner; since 1989, color has been used throughout
the layout, but the pdf files are essentially all black & white.
The Newsletter went electronic at the
beginning of 2003; members were informed by e-mail when a new issue was
posted on the website. However, a print version was still available on
request. The change to electronic format did not initially affect either
the content or the appearance of the Newsletter. Since 2004, it has been
managed by Della Miller in the AVS office. In 2010, to enhance the
newsletter as a recruitment tool, technical articles were included while
still providing society news.
Starting in February 2011, the
newsletter was renamed “Beneath the Surface”, given a new look and
issued monthly, instead of quarterly. However, a separate quarterly
‘Newsletter’ included the President’s Message.
All the
Newsletters are available on the website.
Education
During 2003, the Education Committee
decided that some of its activities for promoting AVS, through the sale
of shirts and mementos, should be transferred to the Publicity Committee
while the Committee concentrated on educational activities, such as the
Science Educators’ Workshop and the production of educational material
in different forms: books, monographs, videos, and computer
presentations.
Education activities were important
since the beginning of the Society and have played a very important role
in AVS. The short course program is the most obvious product of this
educational commitment, but there have been many others.
The Science Educators Workshop, which
is held at the Symposium, has now involved about 500 high school
teachers directly and has been propagated by them to thousands of
teachers throughout the country. Each teacher received a vacuum system
and earned Continuing Education Units (CEU). In addition, Chapters have
organized other workshops and school programs. The full impact of such
programs will not be reflected in the community for some years, but it
must surely be very positive.
Teachers could apply online for the 2004 Workshop in Anaheim; 20 high
school teachers attended. In Boston in 2005, there were 27 teachers;
although 17 were local, many of them requested travel support. In
2007, over 50 teachers applied online and 31 were selected to attend in
Seattle, and an evening session entitled, “Outreach Workshop for
Scientists: K-12 Classroom Demonstrations,” was held to inform AVS
members of demonstrations suitable for K-12 classrooms. Only 18 teachers
participated in the 2008 Workshop in Boston; 12 were local and the rest
were sponsored by chapters. The Education Committee had worked to align
the content with National Science and Mathematics Education standards to
provide teachers with better understanding of how to use the material in
middle and high school classrooms. In 2011, the Workshop was
re-certified for 1.5 CEU’s by the University of Dayton. There were 19
teachers in 2009, 18 in 2010 and 20 in 2011.. In 2012, the 23rd Workshop
was held in Tampa with 23 teachers; there had been 28 applications.
There were 15 teachers from seven chapters at AVS-60 in 2013.
In 2004, 16 monographs and two hardbound books were available for sale;
hardbound sales were $10,000 in 2002-2003 and monograph sales were about
$20,000 per year. The bestselling monographs were directly linked to
short course usage and monograph sales declined along with course
attendance. In the past, monographs were printed in large quantities and
the AVS office was overstocked with some older and more specialized
monographs. In 2005, in an effort to deplete this large supply, prices
were reduced from $25 to $10 and monographs were provided free to
student chapters and topical conference attendees. Since sales continued
to decline, the stock was kept to a minimum. Many monographs were
destroyed in 2012 when the office was flooded during Hurricane Sandy,
but many of these were old and had low sales volume. Most are still
available as PDF versions.
The Nalge Company had made an annual donation of vacuum pump equipment,
with a value of $16,000-20,000, for the Science Educators’ Workshop. A
new pump vendor took over in 2006.
The only new monograph published during the past decade was “Ultra-High
Vacuum” by R. Outlaw and H. Tompkins. A request for new authors in the
Newsletter in 2008 yielded no responses.
Courses
The
Short Course Program has provided
training in many topics to over thirty thousand people since 1968 and
many more attended courses at Chapter meetings. However, there has been
a decline in attendance in the past decade. In 2003, low attendance was
attributed to the continued recession in the semiconductor industry.
With the
possibility of increased use of remote course instruction, AVS reached
an agreement in 2003 with SemiZone, a company specializing in web-based
courses, to video some of the AVS courses. Six courses were selected for
the initial trial; “Vacuum Leak Detection” by M. Benapfl, “Chemical
Mechanical Planarization/Copper Interconnect Technology” by J. Givens,
“MEMS” by S. Pang, “Atomic Force and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy” by
P. Russell, “Focused Ion Beams” by F. Stevie and J. Orloff and “Full
Wafer Particle and Defect Detection” by C.R. Brundle. Prior to the
agreement, Abe Ghanbari had recorded for SemiZone a course similar to
one he had presented in AVS programs.
It was
somewhat surprising that the video recording procedure was almost the
same as was used in the video taping of AVS courses at LLNL twenty years
earlier! The instructor sat and talked to the camera while pointing to
the visual aids; the only difference was that the laptop computer screen
had replaced a piece of paper!
On
completion of a SemiZone course, a certificate could be requested and
would be issued jointly by SemiZone and the Stanford Center for
Professional Development. However, the contractual arrangement with
Semizone for on-line delivery of AVS courses was terminated in October,
2004, without any course being recorded.
Continuing Education Units (CEUs) can be issued for a processing fee and
the issue of “certification” for people who have completed AVS courses
has been raised. The Vacuum Society of Japan does offer such
certification for “vacuum technicians” after a summer school program.
In 2005,
the contract with Cathy Sheldon for production of course notes was
terminated because, with the decrease in the number of both courses and
attendees, the New York office could now handle the job. The source
files for the notes were then transferred electronically from instructor
to the office. Meanwhile, AVS West took responsibility for scheduling
of, and registration for, the courses.
In 2006,
it was decided that, starting in 2007, there would be three pre-set
course offerings; East and West Coasts and Midwest, but one of these
could be at the Symposium. All these programs would be guaranteed to run
and this allowed a concerted advertising campaign; a “Courses by
Request” was added to the website. On-site courses earned almost $50,000
with $7,000 going to the appropriate chapters. Two 4-day Vacuum
Technology courses at NASA contributed about 30% of the revenue.
However, the course registrations in Pittsburg and St Louis were very
low and the Portland offering was cancelled.
There
were five on-site courses in 2009 and six in 2010, but the income from
on-site courses fell as the decreased semiconductor manufacturing in the
USA required less workforce training. A course program in Taiwan in 2009
lost about $5,000, but student feedback was positive. Consideration of
programs in China in 2010 concluded that, while there was a widespread
need for basic training in vacuum technology in China, the level of
training would have to start much lower with courses broken into smaller
units and taught in Chinese. AVS instructors were not interested in such
courses.
The
pricing of on-site courses has been based on 15 attendees whereas
courses associated with symposia often have 8-10 attendees. Five on-site
courses were given in 2013 and seven courses and two half-day tutorials
were presented at AVS-60.
Recommended
Practices
The current list of Recommended
Practices is given in the Technical Libaray section of the AVS website.
The formulation of standards for
vacuum equipment was one of the main interests of those who founded the
Society. The AVS played a large role in establishing “standards” in
these early days and then revived such efforts to generate “recommended
practices” during Era Three, The Society is currently in one of those
periods of relatively rather low activity which have occurred over the
years.
After 12 years of effort, the “Recommended Practice for Process Sampling
for Partial Pressure Analysis” was published by J. Blessing et. al., in
JVST A 25 (1), January/February 2007, pages 167- 186.
In 2012, there were two sub-committees; one was in the final editing
stage for ionization gauge calibration and usage; the other was looking
for new members to assist in updating vacuum symbols and terminology,
which was the first project tackled by the original Standards committe.
The committee served as hosts of the USA membership in both TC-201 and
TC-112 ISO committees and a change in the ISO fee structure was passed
down through the American National Standards Institute and ASTM. The
annual fee had been increased in 2012 to $650 for each of the twelve
working groups for a total of $7,500. ISO also charged a $1,500 fee to
the country of which the secretary of the working group was a citizen.
This amounted to a $3,000 increase in the Committee budget to $13,000.
TC-201 and TC-112 have an annual plenary meeting which rotates among the
U.S., Asia, and Europe. Both TC-201 and TC-112 held meetings in Tampa at
the same time as AVS-59 and AVS was responsible for these costs.
While the
Committee works at developing procedures to deal with new vacuum
equipment, there is not the same demand, at least yet, for defined
procedures in activities of the other Divisions and Groups. It might be
useful for other topical areas to examine whether development of such
practices could help those working in the field. However, the
requirement for developing standards and recommended practices comes
from industrial interests, not scientific research.
Divisions
A complete list of the current Divisions, Technical Groups and Chapters
is on the AVS website.
At the end of 2013, there were 10 Divisions, the same as at the end of
Era 4. The Division Chairs are elected annually by the division members.
Information about each Division is available on the AVS website.
Several Divisions hold topical conferences, which are covered under
“Topical Conferences” above, and make awards to researchers or students;
these are covered under “Awards”.
Over several years, there had been an effort to update the by-laws of
the divisions, as well as groups and chapters, and make them consistent
with the AVS Constitution and By-laws. By 2005, only the New England
Chapter had not completed this process, but there had been such a surge
in requests for revisions that the Constitution and By-laws Committee
issued a letter encouraging the development of Procedures manuals rather
than make changes in the by-laws stating that “By-laws are intended to
provide a skeleton on which procedures should be hung! The leaner they
are, the better!”
The activities of the Divisions have not changed significantly over the
years. The main emphasis is always on developing an excellent program
for the Symposium. Programs for both the 50th and 60th Symposia did
require some changes in topic, or emphasis, with special sessions on the
historical aspects of the technology. Representatives of the Divisions
also contributed to the special issues of JVST.
In 2007,
the Board started to invite two divisions to make a presentation on
their status and activities. The Biomaterials Interfaces Division (BID)
and Surface Science Division (SSD) were the first Divisions to do so.
With ten divisions and four Board meetings each year, these Board
presentations can occur about once every three years.
When BID was formed, AVS became the
home of the first biointerface-focused conference and it had always had
a high international engagement; they have alternated
U.S./international-based chairs for many years, and always invited
international speakers to participate in their program. BID had about
300 members in 2007 and had introoduced ‘wet’ surface science; about 100
abstracts were submitted for the Symposium. BID has traditionally raised
significant funding support from industry and government agencies. They
hold an Annual Sunday Biomaterials Plenary Session at every Symposium.
Their membership base is still strong, but it is now a challenging
environment with many new biointerface meetings, increased interest in
non-vacuum techniques, and a very multidisciplinary field with many
alternate conferences. The average talk attendance has gradually dropped
from 80 to 40 in 2010. In 2012, BID updated its By-laws.
In 2008, the average session attendance at Electronic Materials and
Processes Division (EMPD) was 25.5 in 2008 and 34.2 in 2009.
The Plasma Science and Technology Division (PSTD has about 1,150 members
from a very wide range of disciplines and fields, including basic
sciences and engineering, medicine, plasma fusion, and semiconductor
manufacturing.
Since 2001, the Surface Science Division (SSD) membership has
fluctuated, with a maximum of 2,200 members, of whom about 19% were
international. The SSD program at the Symposium had included over 270
papers until 2006, when contributions decreased by 18%, but recovered a
little in 2007. SSD had traditionally organized a Post-deadline
Discovery Session on Thursday evening at which time the Mort Traum Award
was presented. However, attendance at this session steadily declined and
there were only four abstract submissions in 2010. The presentation is
now made at a separate event after the winner has been selected at an
earlier poster session.
In 2009, the Thin Film Division (TFD) introduced a Paul Holloway Award
to recognize outstanding accomplishment by a young investigator who is
less than seven years past their terminal degree. The $50,000 endowment
was raised from family and friends and the $2,000 Award was presented
for the first time at AVS-56. TFD also holds a special session at the
Symposium to select the Harper Award winner. The TFD started the Atomic
Layer Deposition (ALD) conference in 2001 and it had been an annual
event since then at both US and international locations; the conference
locations were in the USA, South Korea and Europe.
The program for the 2005 ICMI conference in Santa Clara was posted
online. Despite significant effort, there were only a few more papers
than in 2004; 40% were from overseas. Attendance declined in 2006
despite the organizational efforts and the possibility of combining it
with another conference was considered.
Groups
At the
end of 2013, there were two Groups.
The
Technology and Sustainability Technical Group (TSTG) was approved by the
Board in May, 2003 with R. Bersin as the Chair. The Group’s goal was to
help focus attention on the scientific and technological areas required
to address environmental and sustainability problems. Sessions on these
topics had been held at the Symposium since 2000. However, the Group was
dissolved in 2005.
In 2007,
the Manufacturing Science and Technology Group (MSTG) reported that the
non-proprietary research activity in manufacturing science in the USA
had declined markedly; there was very little federal funding and even
less corporate funding. In the semiconductor field, only plasma
processing was strongly represented in AVS: other topics had separate
conferences such as IEDM and VLSI. Although there were insufficient
contributed papers in 2007 for a session, the all-invited overview
session at the Symposium remains well attended.
In 2008,
the MEMS/NEMS Group had 490 members. It had initiateded a Best Paper
Award of $500 in 2004 for graduate students to motivate them in
preparation for their careers. The Group was raising funds from
industrial sponsors to support its activities.
Chapters
Chapters
were established as a means of organizing scientific activities in a
specific area of the country. While some Chapters are still very active
in doing this, the need in other areas seems to have waned and Chapter
activity has also declined and, in some cases, disappeared. The most
dramatic case was the demise of the Greater New York Chapter, which was
due to changes in the large industrial laboratories in the area.
However, there are several other factors which may be having an effect.
Internet access has provided communication among people with common
interests which is independent of geography or time. Members in
commercial operations have less time for involvement in activities
outside work; whereas companies used to actively encourage involvement,
it is now usually frowned on. Members at universities already have
access to seminars on a regular basis within their institution. However,
Student Chapters may provide a new focus on campus for activities in
topical areas relevant to AVS.
At the end of 2013, there were 17 Chapters, 2 International Chapters and
an International Afiiliate. Information on these chapters is available
through their links on the website.
The
Arizona Chapter had not met since 2001 and the remaining members of the
Executive had been unsuccesful in recruiting new committee members; the
strong support from members in Motorola had declined due to the changing
electronics industry In 2004, the Arizona Chapter dissolved and its
members merged with the New Mexico Chapter.
Over several years, there had been an effort to update all Chapter
by-laws to make them consistent with the AVS Constitution and By-laws.
By 2005, only the New England Chapter had not completed this process. In
2010, The Northern California Chapter (NCCAVS) By-laws were updated.
In 2008,
the Empire State Science and Technology Chapter (ESST), formerly the
Upstate New York Chapter, was officially dissolved because of
non-compliance with AVS procedures. Members in the area covered by the
Chapter stated that the Chapter did not meet there needs any more and
there had been no chapter elections for several years.
In 2009,
the Hudson Mohawk Chapter in Eastern
New York was formed with 122 members in Eastern New York and Vermont.
The Mid-Atlantic Chapter has held regional meetings in different
locations. For example, meetings were held at North Carolina State
University in November, 2008, with 75 attendees, in Washington, DC in
April 1, 2009, with 41 attendees and at Jefferson Lab in April, 2009,
with 30 attendees. All three meetings had a low expense format; the
space was free because they were Held at government or university sites;
there were no hotel costs or local arrangements, minimizing the work of
the organizers so that they could concentrate on the meeting content and
student involvement. Two of the meetings had no fee and the third one
had a small charge of $20 except for students, who paid $5. Each meeting
hosted a student poster competition and vendor displays with the vendor
support paying for student prizes. In 2013, the Mid-Atlantic Chapter
area was expanded to include West Virginia and western Maryland.
In 2010, the Rocky Mountain Chapter symposium had 18 exhibitors and
attendees from across the western US and Canada. In cooperation with
the Colorado Association of Science Teachers, the Chapter offers annual
Colorado Physical Science Teacher Awards to outstanding elementary
through college science teachers, for excellence in teaching physical
sciences.
The Michigan Chapter holds an annual Symposium; topics have included
“Thin Film and Nanostructured Materials for Alternative Energy
Applications” (2008), “Wide Bandgap Materials for Displays, Sensors, and
Device Technology” (2009), “White-Light LEDs for Automotive and General
Lighting Applications” (2010), “Graphene Nano-materials and Neural
Interfaces” (2011), and “Nanotribology” (2012). Typically 80-90 people
attend the symposium, but membership has decreased due mainly to a
decrease in the automotive industry, so that membership is predominantly
academic. Educational Outreach activities have included sponsoring a
science teacher to attend the Science Educators Workshop, holding a
“Student Talks” Dinner Meeting, free admission to dinner meetings for
local University students, and a student poster award presented at the
Spring Symposium. The Chapter ran a short course in 2007 on vacuum
pumping and they co-sponsored an AFM Workshop in 2011. The bank balance
had been fairly constant at about $10,000.
In 2012, the Minnesota Chapter had been fairly inactive for several
years and had not held a Symposium. Although they had 137 members, only
90 were active and 56 were from out of state. They had started a
LinkedIn site, which had 94 members, as a promotional tool.
The Texas
Chapter had become inactive in Era 4 and their funds were managed by the
AVS Treasurer.
The Chapter was reformed in
April, 2011 in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area and held a lecture
in March 2012 with 35 attendees. About 50 people were interested in the
Chapter, but few seemed interested in taking leadership roles/ However
another meeting was held after the Physical Electronics Conference in
June, 2012.
In 2012, a group met at Oak Ridge National Lab to explore the
re-establishment of the Tennessee Valley Chapter but the response from
outside Oak Ridge was poor.
The Northern California Chapter (NCCAVS) had cut their Science Educators
Workshop and tours in 2012 due to budget issues, with a $30,000 decrease
in finances since 2007 due to poor attendance at short courses and their
symposium. However, the Chapter reserves were still about $280,000 and
they had an invested portfolio from which they expected a 5% annual
return. The Chapter was also trying to reduce expenses.
International ‘Chapters’
In 2006, Gary McGuire, chair of the International Interactions
Committee, stated the case for forming international chapters; there was
an increasing number of AVS members outside the USA and more than half
of JVST articles had international authors. The Board approved an
International Chapter in Taiwan in 2009.
A subsequent legal recommendation stated that an international chapter
would have to be registered in its home country because activities would
involve financial transactions which would differ from the USA and vary
from country to country. Also, the AVS Constitution did not specifically
recognize such activities. The term “chapter” is defined in the AVS
Constitution and By-laws; it refers to AVS operating units, for which
the Board has authority and fiduciary liability. The relationship
between “The American Vacuum Society dba (doing business as) AVS” and
its chapters is established and enforced under U.S. law. AVS operations
should remain within the jurisdiction of U.S. law. Thus, it was
recommended that “Chapter” not be used to describe relationships with
independently-operated, independently-incorporated, non-U.S. based,
non-profit entities. The Board does have the authority to enter into
relationships (including financial commitments) with other
organizations, and the designation “International Affiliate” seemed
appropriate.
In spite of these considerations, the Board determined that changing the
designation of the Taiwan International Chapter to an International
Afiiliate would be “counter-productive” and it remains the first
international chapter. In 2012, a new Saint Lawrence Chapter was
approved; its leadership was centred in Montreal with potential members
along the St. Lawrence valley.
In 2011,
the Korean Vacuum Society stated that it had no interest in forming an
International Affiliate, but they were interested in pursuing joint
activities such as a jointly sponsored Pac-Vac Conference
Student
Chapters
2003 was
the first year for the operation of the newly authorized Student
Chapters. Both a manual and a quick reference booklet were produced to
assist students in the formation and operation of a chapter. The
University of Florida Chapter was the first Student Chapter, having been
approved in December, 2002; its initial activities included a talk by
Larry Kazmerski on January 28, 2003, and a field trip to the A&N
Corporation in Williston, Florida. By mid-2003, it had about 40 members.
The Northwestern University Chapter was approved in May, 2003 with 33
members and the University of Central Florida in July, 2003 with 26
members.
In 2007, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chapter was
approved with 15 members. The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa
Student Chapter was approved in 2008. An application was received for a
Metro Atlanta Chapter for Georgia Tech and Georgia State universities.
However, by 2010, some of these chapters had significantly fewer
members; both Florida chapters had decreased to 8 members.
A new chapter was approved at the University of Washington in 2010. In
2012, a chapter was formed at SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and
Engineering at Albany.
At the end of 2013, there were 11 Student Chapters and 4 of those have
websites; the University of Alabama is in stunning red!
Interactions
Government Interactions
There has been some increase in
activities intended to influence the US government in its allocation of
research funds. These include membership in various groups (FMS. ASTRA)
and participation in Congressional visits. This may not be surprising
given the increasing fraction of the membership from academia, but is
rather at odds with the emphasis on becoming a more international
society.
After the
value to AVS of funding a Congressional Fellows had been discussed for
several years, it was decided to contribute half the $50,000 cost of
sponsoring a Fellow for a one year term, the 2009-2010 cycle; the
Astronomical Society (ASA) contributed the balance. The Fellow selected
by AIP was Marcos Huerta, an ASA member. He was followed for the
2010-2011 term by Christopher Spitzer, but AVS decided not to continue
this support beyond his term.
Interactions with Societies
There continues to be a strong
association with the AIP, which was certainly strengthened in 2007 when
a former AVS President, Fred Dylla, became AIP’s Executive Director.
Since AIP
was also the publisher of the AVS journals, the Journal of Vacuum
Science & Technology and Surface Science Spectra, there is an ongoing
relationship between the AVS journal editors and editorial office and
AIP staff. AIP launched Scitation in January, 2004, with 20 member
societies and organizations participating. It covered 144 publications
with about 600,000 articles and AIP reported 2,000 users, 13,000 page
views, and 1,000 downloads per month. Google indexing was introduced,
and as a result AVS paper sales increased from 18 to 52 per month with
an estimated annual income from article sales is $10,000.
AVS is still somewhat different from
the other members of AIP because of its stronger industrial involvement,
but the differences are becoming less as the AVS membership is drawn
more and more from universities and non-industrial organizations. In
many ways, the Society for Vacuum Coaters has followed the AVS in its
earlier days by catering to, and encouraging, membership by the
industries involved in vacuum coating.
In May, 2003, AVS contracted with AIP Career Services for the
development of an online career center which allows users to post
positions and search all jobs and resumes on the AIP site. Job seekers
may use this service free-of-charge and employers pay a fee to post
positions.
On several occasions, AIP held their Industrial Physics Forum at the
same time and location as the AVS Symposium.
AVS appointed Professor M. Williams, Physics Department, Clark Atlanta
University, as the AVS representative on the AIP Liaison Committee on
Under-Represented Minorities. Bill Westwood served on AIP’s History
Advisory Committee 2007-10 and was the Chair in 2010.
AVS members continue to receive Physics Today but the cost to AVS
increased by $5 per member in 2010.
International Interactions
AVS has continued membership in IUVSTA,
the Society’s recent budget issues may result in decreased participation
in the IUVSTA activities. AVS has hosted the International Vacuum
Congress every fifteen years or so;.
During
2004, Bill Rogers was elected as President Elect of IUVSTA for
2004-2007; he served as President for 2007-20010 and then as Past
President for three years. The position requires stamina! At the General
Meeting in Venice in 2004, Bill Westwood ended his second three-year
term as Secretary General.
History
The AVS website contains a brief
history of the Society as well as the more detailed e-History. The
topics are similar in both cases.
For the 50th anniversary,
the History Committee arranged for a special supplemental issue of
JVST with invited papers on the development of science and
technology over the period of the society’s existence. After an
introduction by the issue editors, Paul Redhead and Fred Dylla, there
were groups of papers on topics reflecting the main Divisions, with an
editor for each one. Paul and Fred were also the editors for Vacuum
Science and Technology; the others were Charlie Duke for Surface
Science, Joe Greene for Thin Films, Joe and Linda Cecchi for Plasma
Science and Technology, Len Brillson for Electronic Materials and
processes, Jim Murday for Nanometer Science and Technology, and
CONTACT _Con-476E3E1254 \c \s \l Bill Sproul for Surface Engineering, The cover of the
supplement featured the photograph of the past Presidents and major
Award winners on a gold background. All those attending the 50th
Symposium received a copy.
The same design and photograph had
been used on the poster which advertised the
50th Symposium during the year. The
50th anniversary logo was used
throughout the year, including the registration badges for the
Symposium. The gold coloring was also used in various publications,
including the Symposium program book and the Awards brochures.
A display of images of the Society
throughout the 50 years was on show; the “Vacuum Timeline”consisted of
five large panels, each one covering ten years of the Society’s history.
The photos and images were selected by Jack Singleton and the
eye-catching presentation was due to Della Miller. Jack made the
interesting observation that there were few, or no, photos of many
individuals who were important in the history of the AVS; Fred McNally,
who was the initial motivator for the formation, appeared only in one
group photo and was not prominent in that! A number of requests were
received for copies of the timeline, which was made available on the
website in 2005. The Timeline has been
updated several times, most recently for the 60th
anniversary.
Excerpts from the
video interviews
which had been video-taped by Jim Lafferty over the past decade were
shown during the 2003 Symposium. The excerpts were selected from the
many hours of interviews with people who had been active in the founding
of the Society and in its administration, people involved in the
development of vacuum and associated technologies, and winners of AVS
Awards. These were then transferred to a set of three DVDs by Greg Adams
at Jefferson Labs; in the process, he was able to reduce some of the
background noise. The DVDs provide many insights into the early days of
both the Society and the science and technology. Some of the former
appear in this history of the Society, but the latter are also very
interesting history; for example, Alfred Niehr discusses how the mass
spectrometer was developed into a manufacturing tool for the Manhattan
project. The set of DVDs can be purchased from the AVS.
In 2004, Paul Holloway assumed
responsibility for these interviews. In 2005, inteviews with the major
Award winners were again videotaped. Paul was surprised how little the
video added while it made the interview logistics quite difficult. Since
2005, Paul has carried out the interviews but without video. Since
then, Paul has interviewed each year’s Award winners and all the
interviews are available on the website. For a few years, this involved
audio recording and transcription, which was mostly carried out by AIP,
followed by a lot of editing before both Paul and the interviewee were
satisfied. In the past few years, voice to text has been used as the
first step, but a lot of editing is still required.
During the 2003 Awards Ceremony, Fred
Dylla, Paul Redhead and Bill Westwood were presented with plaques in
appreciation of their efforts in “preserving a permanent legacy of the
first 50 years of AVS”. Of course, many others had also made major
contributions to this, especially Jack Singleton and Jim Lafferty.
At the 51st Symposium,
photographs were obtained of Esther Krikorian and Hugh Garvin when they
attended the Awards Ceremony and Reception. They had played significant
roles in both the AVS and the Southern Claifornia Chapter. In 2005, all
the photographs in the archives were digitized and a searchable archive
list was generated in Excel. All the photos were then sent to AIP for
archiving in temperature and humidity controlled environment. The
digitized version of the photos are also stored on a CD which is
archived with the documents annually, also at AIP.
At the 51st Symposium, a
special session was held to commemorate John Ambrose Fleming, who
invented the first vacuum tube (or valve, since he was British). The
session was actually held on the same date as the filing of his patent
one hundred years earlier! Unfortunately, Paul Redhead, who had
instigated the session and was a scheduled speaker, was unable to attend
because he had a heart attack a few days earlier. Paul died in 2005 and
his obituary is in the 2005 Fall issue of the Newsletter. He had been
writing a book on the history of vacuum, but several chapters still had
to be written. His daughter retained all the files and was anxious to
see the book completed, but this has not happened.
An obituary of A.S.D. Barret, the
first AVS Honorary Member, appeared in the 2005 Winter issue of the
Newsletter. An obituary for Jim Lafferty was written by Jack Singleton
and appeared in the summer, 2006, issue of the Newsletter; Singleton
also gave a commemorative talk at a special session in the 2006
Symposium. Jim had played a major part in both AVS and IUVSTA and had
served as President of both. Obituaries have appeared in the Newsletter
for the following members who played important roles in the Society: Ted
Madey (Fall 2008), Bill Lange (Winter 2008), Sally Asher and Dan Bills
(Winter 2010), Norm Peacock (July 2011), Steve Barker (January 2012) and
Lucy Czanderna (May 2012). Lucy was an annual helper at the 5k Run Desk,
a short history of which is given in the December, 2012, Newsletter.
There was a History booth at several Symposia; the objective was to
raise the awareness of AVS members about the Society’s history and to
encourage donations copies of old photos, documents, and other relevant
items. For AVS-55 in Boston, Jack Singleton selected equipment items for
display and generated explanatory notes for each one. To promote the
booth, Robert Waits wrote an article for the Fall issue of the AVS.
At AVS-59, the History Booth exhibited examples of original LEED
equipment.
In 2005, the History Committee experimented with digitizing old books
on vacuum equipemtn; there are no copyright issues on books published
before 1963. However, the cost of $0.18 per page was prohibitive.
In 2009, the Committee determined that Springer had no interest in
adding to the AVS Classics Series since they did not see a reasonable
market for such a venture.
For AVS-60, there was a special session with five past Presidents from
different decades of the AVS sharing their “Historical Perspectives of
the AVS”. An Historical Vacuum Symposia was held with presentations on
vacuum developments, history, and technology. During the year leading up
to the Symposium, each issue of the Newsletter contained trivia
questions drawn from the AVS history, just one of many activities to
draw attention to the 60th anniversary.
The AVS archives are stored by the AIP. Each year, appropriate documents
are collected by the staff, listed by the Archivist and shipped to AIP.
In the past decade, this has included a selected list of digital photos
taken at the Symposium. From over a 1000 photos, mostly taken by Lynn
Provo, Bill Westwood selects about 100 for archiving.
The History Committee must always be
looking ahead. Otherwise, who will produce the history on the 100th
Anniversary in 2053? It recently purchased a reproduction copy of a 1709
book "Physico-Mechanical Experiments On Various Subjects, Containing An
Account of Several Surprizing Phenomena Touching Light and Electricity,
Producible on the Attrition of Bodies." by Francis Hauksbee which
contains excellent descriptions of pumps, a bell jar system and
experiments. While searching for "vacuum bibliographies", Bruce Kendall
encountered a bizarre listing of the
AVS collection which had been
through an automatic translation process, during which all foreign words
were anglicised. Thus, Kahlbaum's book on Vapor Pressures became
Baretree's book on Rising Mists! Who knows, perhaps future versions of
the AVS history will be generated by computer!
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