Era 5: 2003-2013 The Internet Era

The e-History of the first fifty years of the AVS was “published” in early 2004 to commemorate the 50^th 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

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

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

Standing Committee Chairs: 2009-2013

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

Sub Committee Chairs: 2009-13

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)

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

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.

AVS Staff (2004-2013)

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.

Awards 

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)

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

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)

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)

Graduate Student Awardees (2003-13)

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 50^th 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 50^th Symposium received a copy. 

The same design and photograph had been used on the poster which advertised the 50^th Symposium during the year. The 50^th 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 60^th 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 51^st 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 51^st 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 60^th 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 100^th 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!