Speakers

We are proud to announce the following speakers have accepted the invitation to attend the symposium as Plenary and Invited Speakers.

Plenary Speakers

Dr Cathy Foley
CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering

Dr. Cathy Foley is a Chief Research Scientist with CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering. She is the Research Program Leader for Devices Systems and Engineering.  She has worked in Superconducting Devices and Applications Project which is developing superconducting systems for mineral exploration, detection of metal for quality assurance in manufacturing, electrode-less heart monitors and remote detection of contra band at airports, terahertz imaging, submarine and UXO detection and quantum computing. This multiple million-dollar project assisted with the discovery and delineation of the BHPB Cannington Silver mine and her team is currently commercialising their systems. Her group was the first team to successfully fly superconducting systems. Cathy also is the CSIRO Advanced Materials Transformational Capability Platform Coordinator that is developing new materials using theory and modeling, combinatorial and high throughout techniques and developing materials informatics.

Cathy has a world-class reputation in her field being a Fellow of the Institute of Physics in the UK, Immediate past President of the Australian Institute of Physics, Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ASTE) and the President of Federation of Australian Science and Technology Societies where she will represent 60,000 Australian scientists and technologists.

Dr. Foley is well known for her interests in physics, science education, women in science, science in the media (she was a regular weekly guest on ABC radio 2BL radio for 5 years) and nuclear disarmament. She has been recently involved in developing the passion for science within CSIRO and renewing what it is to be a scientist. She is concerned about how intellectual property is recorded and how to best make it beneficial to all stakeholders. Cathy was awarded a Public Service Medal on the 2003 Australia Day and won the 2003 Eureka Prize for the promotion of Science and the NSW and National winner of the Telstra Women’s Business Award for Innovation in 2009. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

 

Professor Werner Hofer 
University of Liverpool, United Kingdom

I am originally Austrian, born in Salzburg. 

My PhD thesis was on electron transport in scanning tunnelling microscopes, undertaken at the Vienna University of Technology. In 1999 I moved to University College London, and three years later to Liverpool, where I currently hold a joint position in Physics and Chemistry as Professor of Physical Chemistry.

My main research interests are processes at surfaces, mainly processes which can be picked up by scanning probe instruments. In this field I have a large number of national and international collaborations with experimental groups in London, St. Andrews (Scotland), Kiel in Germany, Toronto and Edmonton in Canada, and also with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and theory groups in Berlin and Copenhagen. I also started a collaboration recently with the University of Sydney. 

 

Professor David Joy
University of Tennessee, United States of America
Distinguished Professor University of Tennessee
Distinguished Scientist Center for Nanophase Materials Science ORNL

My interests presently cover a wide range of topics including  applications of Helium and Proton beams as alternatives to electron beams for high performance Scanning Microscopy; developments in sources, optics, and analytical methods with particle beams; Monte Carlo modeling of electron-solid and ion-solid interactions,  and the construction;  and the development of data bases describing  electron and ion interactions with solids. I have authored and/or edited nine books and over 400 peer reviewed papers about these topics.  I am a Past President and Fellow of The Microscopy Society of America, and hold appointments as a Distinguished Professor at The University of Tennessee, and a Distinguished Scientist at The Center for NanoPhase Materials Science, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 

Professor Dirk Ponge  

Professional background:
Diploma (1990) RWTH Aachen, Germany;
Dissertation (1996) RWTH Aachen, Germany
(all degrees are in Metal Physics and Physical Metallurgy)
Current position:
Since 2001 member of the Max-Planck Society;
Group leader at Max-Planck Institut für Eisenforschung, Düsseldorf, Germany
Previous positions: 
Head of materials testing department and lecturer at Schweißtechnische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt Nord, Hamburg, Germany;
researcher and lecturer at the Institut für Metallkunde und Metallphysik, RWTH Aachen, Germany
Main research fields:
development and thermomechanical treatment of steels

Professor Hans Juergen Kreuzer
Dalhousie University, Canada

Hans Jürgen Kreuzer, born 1942 Germany, MSc 1966 (Bonn), Dr. rer. nat.1967 (Bonn), Professor of Physics U. Of Alberta 1971-82, Killam and A.C. Fales Prof. Dalhousie University since 1982, 300 papers, 6 books, 260 invited talks, 5 patents. Worked in elementary particle theory, condensed matter, non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, surface science, polymer science, holography, physics and chemistry in high electric fields.  Honours and Awards: Lady Davies Professor, Technion, Haifa, Israel (1977),  Guest Fellow of the Royal Society, London (1987), Fellow of the Max-Planck Society, Germany (1988),  Heinrich-Welcker Guest Professor, University of Erlangen- Nürnberg, Germany, 1992, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1993),  Humboldt Research Award (1995, 2008.

Dr Thierry Visart de Bocarme
Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Thierry Visart de Bocarmé studied Chemistry at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium and completed his undergraduate studies in 1997 with a diploma in chemistry under the supervision of Professor Norbert Kruse. Having finished his PhD in the same group, he started his postdoctoral research in 2002 in the group of Professor George Smith at the University of Oxford. After a second postdoctoral position in Brussels for the Belgian National Science Council, he was appointed to the staff of the Free University of Brussels where he is currently assistant professor. His current research interests are related to heterogeneous catalysis investigated by fundamental and applied methods.    

 

Professor Qi-Kun Xue
Tsinghua University, China

Qi-Kun Xue received his B. S. degree in laser physics from Shandong University in 1984 and Ph.D degree in condensed matter physics from Institute of Physics, The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1994. From 1994 to 2000, he worked as a research associate at Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Japan. From 1996 to 1997, he relocated as a visiting assistant professor in Physics Department, North Carolina State University, USA. He became a professor at Institute of Physics, CAS in 1999. From 1999 to 2005, he served the Director of State Key Laboratory for Surface Physics, CAS. Since 2005, he has been a professor in the Department of Physics at Tsinghua University. He was elected into The Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005.

His research interests include: (1) Low temperature scanning tunneling microcopy and spectroscopy; (2) Atomic-scale study of growth/fabrication and quantum phenomenon of low-dimensional nano-structures; (3) Molecule-based spintronics; (4) Topological insulators. He has coauthored ~200 papers with a citation of more than 3200 times. He has presented more than 60 invited talks at international meetings/conferences, such as the American Physical Society March Meeting (1996, 2005, 2010), The International Conference on Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy (1999, 2005, 2006) and The European Conference of Surface Science (2006). Currently, he is the Editors-in-Chief for Nano Research, and on the Editorial Advisory Board of Applied Physics Letter, Journal of Applied Physics, Surface Science, Nanotechnology, Journal of Physics D (Applied Physics) and European Physical Journal of Applied Physics.

Invited Speakers

Dr Tala’at Al-Kassab
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

Dr. Tala'at Al-Kassab is currently an Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in the Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the newly established King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal/Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). His research interest is directed toward topics including thermodynamics and phase separation in constitutional alloys and compounds, diffusion and segregation effects along grain and interface boundaries particularly in nano-crystalline materials and thin film layers, thereby exploring the metallic/nonmetallic (oxide, semiconductor) interface. He is an elected member of the International Steering Committee (ISC) of the International Field Emission Society (IFES), and has served as secretary of the ISC since 2004. Dr. Al-Kassab holds a bachelor‘s degree in physics and chemistry from the University of Kiel in Germany. He received his master‘s in physics, his doctorate in physics, and his Venia Legendi in material physics from the University of Göttingen in Germany.

 

Dr Baptiste Gault
University of Oxford, United Kingdom

My PhD was dedicated to the implementation of an ultrafast laser on an existing three-dimensional atom probe, and the subsequent study of the physical mechanisms underpinning the laser-assisted field evaporation process. This work was conducted, under the supervision of Prof. Bernard Deconihout and Dr. Francois Vurpillot, at the University of Rouen in France, in one of the groups that pioneered the development of atom probe tomography. I then moved to Sydney, Australia, to integrate the Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, to work with Prof. Simon Ringer on a variety of materials science problems as well as improve the general understanding on the performances of the technique to push its limits, especially regarding its spatial resolution. After nearly two years of successful interaction, I moved to the Department of Materials of the University of Oxford, in the UK, to take up a Marie Curie Fellowship to broaden my skills in electron microscopy and investigate the structure-property relationship in a range of bulk thermoelectric materials, while keeping on investigating ways to improve the reconstruction in atom probe tomography.

 

Dr Kazuhiro Hono
National Institute for Materials Science, Japan

Kazuhiro Hono received a B.S. and M.S. in Materials Science from Tohoku University in 1982 and 1984, respectively, and a Ph.D. in Metals Science and Engineering from Penn State in 1988. Following post-doc at CMU, he started his career as a research associate at the Institute for Materials Research at Tohoku University, then, moved to the National Research Institute for Metals (now National Institute for Materials Science) as a Senior Researcher in 1995. He is now a Fellow of NIMS, Managing Director of Magnetic Materials Center at NIMS, and also a Professor of the Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences at the University of Tsukuba. His research interests include microstructure-property relationships of magnetic, spintronic and structural materials, atom probe field ion microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. http://www.nims.go.jp/apfim/

 

Professor Barry Luther-Davies
Australian National University, Australia

Barry Luther-Davies is a Professor of Laser Physics at the Australian National University with experience in the diverse areas of research including lasers, laser-matter interaction physics, photonics, optical materials and nonlinear optics. He completed a BSc and PhD at the University of Southampton, UK before joining ANU in 1974. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and the Australian Academy for Technological Sciences and Engineering. He was awarded the Pawsey Medal of the Australian Academy of Science in 1986 for his contribution to laser-plasma interaction physics and was an ARC Federation Fellow from 2003-2008.

 

Dr Emmanuelle Marquis
University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Emmanuelle A. Marquis is a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford. After attending the Ecole des Mines de Paris, she was awarded a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University in 2002. She then went to Sandia National Laboratories (Livermore, CA) before going to Oxford in 2007 to manage of the 3D atom-probe UK facility.

Her research interests are in the general areas of stability and evolution of alloy structures, solutes/defects interactions, and development of new analysis tools. She is currently focusing on the effects of irradiation in alloy systems and the development of structural materials for nuclear applications, while developing new experimental approaches and data analysis to maintain cutting edge expertise in atomic scale characterization techniques. Contact: emmanuelle.marquis@googlemail.com

 

Professor Stephen Pennycook
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, United States of America

Stephen J. Pennycook is a Corporate Fellow in the Materials Science and Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and leader of the Electron Microscopy Group.  He holds a BA, MA and PhD degrees from the University of Cambridge, UK. His current research interests focus on the development of Z‑contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy with sub-Angstrom resolution, and applications to materials science, catalysis, biology and nanoscience. Pennycook is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Institute of Physics, and has been awarded the Materials Research Society Medal and the Thomas Young Medal of the Institute of Physics.

 

Dr Ty Prosa
Imago, USA

Ty Prosa can be reached at Imago Scientific Instruments Corp., 5500 Nobel Drive, Madison, WI 53711, USA; tel. 608-274-6880; and e-mail tprosa@imago.com.

Dr. Prosa has been an Applications Scientist at Imago since 2005.  He received a BS in physics and math from the University of WI-Eau Claire and MS and PhD degrees in physics from UW-Madison.  After an NRC postdoctoral associateship at NIST-Gaithersburg in the polymers division, Prosa held positions at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and Hamline University in Saint Paul MN teaching liberal arts physics and conducting undergraduate research. Prosa has a background in x-ray diffraction studies of polymer structure and more recently has focused on specimen preparation R&D for use in atom probe tomography.

 

Associate Professor Robert Scholten
University of Melbourne, Australia

Robert Scholten is an Associate Professor and Reader in Physics at The University of Melbourne, where he leads the Ultracold Plasma high-brightness electron source Programme of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Coherent X-ray Science.  His research career began with studying electron collisions from laser-excited atoms, where the laser polarisation controlled the quantum state of the target atoms.  His interest in the laser-atom interactions formed the basis of his further research, for example using atom-optics techniques for nanofabrication as a Fulbright Postdoctoral Research Fellow at NIST in the USA.  He has also developed novel approaches to optical imaging of cold atoms, is currently working on quantum information processing using colour centres in diamond, and has created a profitable high-tech start-up (MOGLabs) company based on lasers and laser electronics.

Professor Krystyna Stiller
Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Prof. Krystyna Stiller is working at the Department of Applied Physics at Chalmers University of Technology. The aim of her research is to study the microstructure of materials down to the atomic level in order to understand both how the microstructure affects the properties of the material and how the microstructure develops during the manufacture and operation. She is a member of the International Steering Committee of the International Field Emission Society (IFES) since 2004 and she was elected as IFES vice-president 2008.

Dr Francois Vurpillot
Université de Rouen, France

Vurpillot François received the Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of Rouen, France in 2001. His Ph.D. work was related to the fundamental aspects of the data artifacts and image reconstruction in Atom Probe Tomography (APT). He is one of the world leaders in this domain. In 2001, he spent one year in Oxford University, department in materials, as a post doctoral researcher. His work was focused on the crucial problem of image reconstruction of GMR materials in APT. In 2002, he joined the “Groupe de Physique des Matériaux” (CNRS UMR 6634), Rouen, France to work as an associated professor in the instrumentation team of the group. He was a pioneer in the rebirth of the pulsed laser assisted atom probe, and developed the first femtosecond laser assisted atom probe. Currently, he is a specialist in theoretical aspects of the instrument, in instrumental development and in laser matter interaction.