Awardee Interviews | Biography: Mark C. Hersam
Mark C. Hersam
Mark C. Hersam is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. His research interests include atomic-resolution processing and characterization of electronic, organic, and biological materials and molecules using scanning tunneling microscopy and atomic force microscopy, nanometer-scale size-dependent structure-property relationships, semiconductor surfaces, nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, sensors, and carbon nanotubes. Since joining Northwestern University in 2000, Dr. Hersam has received a number of research awards including an Arnold and Mabel Beckman Young Investigator Award (2001), a National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2002), an Army Research Office Young Investigator Award (2005), an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award (2005), an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2005), the TMS Robert Lansing Hardy Award (2006). Dr. Hersam has also been recognized for his education and outreach activities with a Searle Center for Teaching Excellence Fellowship (2001), the Teacher of the Year Award in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (2003), Election to the Associated Student Government Faculty Honor Roll (2004), and the Chicago Area Undergraduate Research Symposium Faculty Research Award (2006). Dr. Hersam is actively involved in several professional societies including AVS, APS, ACS, TMS, MRS, IEEE, and ASEE. Within AVS, he served as an Executive Board Member of the Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Division (2003-2005) and is currently serving as the Chair of the AVS Prairie Chapter (2006-present). Dr. Hersam also contributes his time to several journals-most notably serving on the Editorial Board of Review of Scientific Instruments (2001-2003) and as Editor-in-Chief of Nanoscape: The Journal of Undergraduate Research in Nanoscience (2003-present). Dr. Hersam completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2000 under the support of a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship and an IBM Distinguished Fellowship. In 1997, Dr. Hersam received his M.Phil. in Microelectronic Engineering and Semiconductor Physics from the University of Cambridge (UK) under the support of a British Marshall Scholarship. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Hersam graduated with Highest Honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1996 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. Besides his educational training, Dr. Hersam has also been employed by Argonne National Laboratory and IBM T.J. Watson Research Center where he performed research on surface acoustic wave sensors and electrical properties of carbon nanotubes respectively. Overall, Dr. Hersam has co-authored over 50 peer reviewed publications and has given over 100 invited presentations at professional meetings and university colloquia.