Bio

Bruce D. Kay
Pacific Northwest National Labs
 

Bruce D. Kay joined Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as Laboratory Fellow in 1991 after ten years at Sandia National Laboratory.  He is also Affiliate Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Washington and the University of Alabama.  Kay received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1976 and a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the University of Colorado in 1982.   He is an elected Fellow of the American Vacuum Society (AVS-2000), the American Physical Society (APS-2000), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS-2005) the International anion of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC-2008), the American Chemical Society (ACS-2010), and the Washington State Academy of Sciences (2017).

Kay is the recipient of the British Vacuum Council John Yarwood Medal (1991). He has served on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Chemical Physics (2009-11) the Journal of Physical Chemistry (2005-2007), and Progress in Surface Science (2000-2006).  He was Vice Chair (2005), Program Chair (2006), Chair (2007) and Past Chair (2008) of the American Chemical Society Physical Chemistry Division.  Kay has served the AVS at both regional and national levels, most recently in the leadership rotation of the Surface Science Division (2012-2017).

He was a member of The Department of Energy Basic Energy Science Advisory Committee BESAC (2008-2018). Bruce’s research includes: Experimental studies employing molecular beam-surface scattering and surface analytical techniques aimed at elucidating the chemical kinetics and dynamics of adsorption, desorption, diffusion, phase transformation, and solvation at model aqueous and oxide interfaces.  Nanoporous thin film synthesis and characterization, state-to-state dynamics of inelastic and reactive gas-surface scattering, chemical kinetics experiments and modeling in gases, liquids and at interfaces, kinetics of sol-gel derived glass and ceramic materials, phase transitions and critical phenomena, hydrogen in and on metals, multiphoton ionization laser spectroscopy of small molecules, rotational and vibrational relaxation, molecular beam electric deflection, and molecular beam production and characterization of clusters. 

He has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and presented over 250 invited lectures.