The Albert Nerken Award was established in 1984 by Veeco Instruments, Inc. in recognition of its founder, Albert Nerken, a founding member of AVS, and his early work in the field of high vacuum and leak detection, and contributions to the commercial development of that instrumentation. It is presented to recognize outstanding contributions to the solution of technological problems in areas of interest to AVS. The award consists of a cash award and a certificate.
 

Dr. Richard J. Colton, Naval Research Laboratory, “for seminal scientific insights that accelerated the development of vastly improved surface and nanoscale analytical techniques, and of innovative biomolecular sensors.”

Richard J. Colton holds two senior positions at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). As the Director of the Institute of Nanoscience, he coordinates and manages highly innovative, interdisciplinary research programs and facilities that operate at the intersections of the fields of materials, electronics and biology in the nanometer size domain. The facilities were designed to exploit and complement the broad multidisciplinary character of the NRL in order to bring together scientists with disparate training and backgrounds to attack common goals at the intersection of their respective fields at this length scale. He is also Acting Superintendent of the Chemistry Division which conducts basic and applied research in the following areas: chemical dynamics and diagnostics, materials chemistry, corrosion science and engineering, surface chemistry, and safety and survivability.

Dr. Colton earned B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pittsburgh in 1972 and 1976, respectively, where he performed graduate work in the areas of ultraviolet and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In 1976, he became a National Research Council Resident Research Associate at NRL working on secondary ion mass spectrometry. Dr. Colton joined the NRL Chemistry Division in 1977 as a research chemist working in surface chemistry. From 1982 to 1998 he was Head of the Advanced Surface Spectroscopy Section in the Surface Chemistry Branch, where he directed and obtained funding for R&D programs to characterize materials by electron and ion spectroscopies, determine the atomic and molecular structure of surfaces by scanning tunneling microscopy, develop new method to measure nanoscale adhesion, friction and mechanical properties of surfaces by atomic force microscopy, and develop novel physical, chemical and biological sensors using electron tunneling and molecular recognition. In 1986, while on sabbatical as a Visiting Associate at the California Institute of Technology, he built a scanning tunneling microscope and used it to understand the atomically–resolved imaging mechanism of graphite in air. In 1998, he became Head of the Surface Chemistry Branch, where he directed a highly interdisciplinary research program in surface chemistry and physics. The staff of ~70 people includes government employees, postdocs, contractors, visiting faculty, and students—the majority hold PhD degrees in chemistry, physics, materials science, or engineering. Major research topics include surface science, nanoscience and technology, nanostructured and electronic materials, chemical dynamics, tribology and coatings, and chemical/ biological sensors. In 2005, he became the Director of the Institute for Nanoscience. As Director, he manages laboratory R&D funds totaling $11M and nanofabrication facilities used for nanoscience research. In late 2006, he became the Acting Superintendent of the Chemistry Division.

Dr. Colton has published over 130 technical papers, including ten book chapters and five patents, which have been cited in the literature over 6000 times. He is a member of AVS, American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, Sigma Xi, and Materials Research Society. He was the first chairman of the AVS Division on Nanometer-scale Science and Technology in 1993, former chair of the AVS Applied Surface Science Division, and served on the AVS Board of Directors in 1992-93. He received the 1992 Hillebrand Prize awarded by the Chemical Society of Washington, was elected AVS Fellow in 1995, received the NRL-Edison Chapter of Sigma Xi Applied Research Award in 1999, and won numerous technical publication and technology transfer awards including the Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer in 2001. Dr. Colton also received the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award in 2003.