Paper SS+AS-ThA2
JOHN T. YATES, JR. - The Energizer Bunny (Invited Talk)

Thursday, November 10, 2016, 2:40 pm, Room 103C

My friend and colleague John Yates was a joy to share life with. His perpetual enthusiasm, imagination, and sincere interest in whatever happened to be the topic of the moment whether a complex issue in surface science, the fate of an astronomically distant galaxy, the program for Lorin Maazel’s next Pittsburgh Symphony concert, the well-being of his scientific “children” and real family, or speculation on what’s likely to be tonight’s specialties on the menu of our favorite Il Pizzico Restaurant near NIST, was infectious. John’s retirement in 2006 from his chair at the University of Pittsburgh [which he went to from NBS/NIST in 1982] brought him to an emeritus-like guest faculty desk at the University of Virginia. Soon upon settling in at the university, his “desk” became an office became a full-fledged surface science lab with an active group of students and post docs supported by research grants that totaled among the highest within UVA chemistry, all of which was built up from scratch after John “retired”. He was the only person I know who confessed that he really liked writing research proposals. He lived and executed his retirement with more excitement, energy, and enthusiasm than a young, tenure-seeking assistant professor; the energizer bunny personified.

I will present a number of anecdotal/amusing illustrative vignettes drawn from my experiences with “the energizer bunny” and discuss why his seminal JCP papers on thermal broadening in ESD [51,1264(1969)] and on resonance ESD [90,5793(1989)] were so influential in my own conceptualization and realizations in surface dynamics.

Finally, John and I had the privilege of being co-participants in two NIST Oral History interviews in 2014 and 15, once as a “target” and then as an interviewer [of each other]. This was a great way for us to summarize our nearly half a century of being a part of each other’s life, a privilege that I feel very fortunate and honored to have had. [transcripts available upon request: gadzuk@nist.gov [mailto:gadzuk@nist.gov] ]