1998 IUVSTA Prize Winner

IUVSTA Prize Medal

Professor J. F. van der Veen
chosen as first winner of the IUVSTA Prize




1^st IUVSTA Prize Winner, J F van der Veen and (1995-1998) triennium officers
From left, Ugo Valbusa (STD chair), John Robins (President), J Friso van der Veen 1^st Award Winner) and T D Madey (Past President).

The first award of the IUVSTA Prize will be made to Professor Johannes Friso van der Veen of the University of Amsterdam for his pioneering investigations of surface and interface structure, disordering and melting through the development and application of Medium Energy Ion Scattering and Surface X-ray Diffraction.

The newly-established IUVSTA Prize, which comprises a cash award and a medal, is presented to recognise outstanding internationally-acclaimed research in experimental and/or theoretical research in vacuum science, technique or applications. The Prize is endowed by generous donations from ANELVA; Balzers and Leybold Holding AG; Intevac; OMICRON Vakuumphysik GmbH; Osaka Vacuum; Physical Electronics; SAES Getters; ULVAC; TAV; Varian Associates; VAT.

Friso van der Veen was born in Utrecht in The Netherlands and received his 'Doctorandus' (1973) and Doctor's (1978) degrees from the University of Utrecht, his thesis advisors being Professors F.W.Saris and J.Kistemaker at the FOM-Institute of Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMOLF) in Amsterdam. He then spent 18 months working with Dr.D.E.Eastman at IBM Yorktown Heights in the USA before returning to the FOM-AMOLF Institute in Amsterdam, first as a staff member and later as a technical director. He moved to a position of Professor of Experimental Physics at the Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute of the University of Amsterdam in 1997.

His early work centred on the development and application of the novel method of medium energy ion scattering (MEIS) with Frans Saris at the AMOLF Institute for the determination of the geometrical structure of surfaces, and synchrotron radiation-based photoemission characterisation of electronic structure first in collaboration with Dean Eastman using the Tantalus facility in Madison, Wisconsin, and then ACO in Orsay, France with Poul Larsen. More recently he has become involved in the development and exploitation of surface X-ray diffraction, first at the Daresbury SRS facility in the UK and most recently at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France. Apart from the novel techniques themselves, pioneering structural studies included those of surface disordering and surface melting, in situ MBE growth studies and properties of solid-liquid interfaces.

His professional activities have included a term as the President of the Netherlands Vacuum Society, general chairmanship of the 12th International Vacuum Congress of IUVSTA in The Hague in 1992, and Chairmanship of the Science Advisory Committee (SAC) of the ESRF.

The IUVSTA Prize will be presented to Professor van der Veen at the International Vacuum Congress in Birmingham, England, 31 August - 4 September 1998. The award will be made at the opening ceremony, on Monday morning, 31 August 1998.