Society Awards and Honors
2009 Awards
Don Baer wins prestigious AVS Nerken Award
Don Baer, Lead Scientist for Interfacial Chemistry at the Department of Energy's EMSL, has received the 2009 Albert Nerken Award from the AVS.
The award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the solution of technological problems in areas of interest to AVS. Baer was cited "for seminal contributions towards advancing the application of surface-sensitive techniques to understand environmentally important materials and interfacial processes."
Baer largely attributes the award to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's rich history of multidisciplinary, team-oriented research that enables significant progress on complex problems. "Although the award is presented to an individual, much of my research has involved participating on and leading teams," he says. "These teams have made important advances in understanding stress corrosion cracking, oxide and mineral surface chemistry, and dynamic behaviors of nanoparticles, as well as in developing and applying interfacial tools in EMSL that facilitate such advances."
The award was established in 1984 by Veeco Instruments, Inc., in recognition of Albert Nerken for his role as a founding member of AVS, his early work in the area of high vacuum and leak detection, and his contributions to the commercial development of that instrumentation. Presentation of the award takes place at the AVS International Symposium, which this year is in San Jose, California, in November.
Baer is a Laboratory Fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, on whose campus EMSL resides, and a Fellow of AVS. He also is an adjunct professor of physics at Washington State University, Tri-Cities, and an adjunct professor of chemistry at the University of Washington. Baer graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and received his doctorate from Cornell University. He has authored or co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific journal publications and edited three books and four special journal issues. He is also Reviews Editor for Surface and Interface Analysis, a refereed journal devoted to publishing papers and applying techniques for characterizing surfaces, interfaces, and thin films. (announced 6/1/2009)