Awardee Interviews | Biography: John H. Weaver

John H. Weaver


John H. WeaverJohn H. Weaver is Professor of Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. He completed his Ph.D. in solid state physics at Iowa State University/Ames Laboratory in. 1972, worked at the Wisconsin Synchrotron Radiation Center until 1982, and then moved to Minnesota as head of the electronic materials group. He is Director of Graduate Studies for materials science.

Weaver's early work dealt with the electronic properties of solids as probed with optical spectroscopies. The emphasis was on metals, and he has an extensive compilation of optical properties in the CRC Handbook. For several years, he was interested in metal hydrides and their electronic properties, as probed optically and with synchrotron radiation photoemission. Starting in the early 1980's, his focus shifted to interfacial phenomena, especially in metal-semiconductor and metal-HTC systems, and photoemission and inverse photoemission were the primary techniques. In 1988, his group developed a novel procedure for forming interfaces via metal cluster deposition. In the 1990's, they expanded their research capabilities to include STM, and. they were leaders in studies of fullerenes, fullerides, and related carbon-based structures. Today, they examine atomic-scale properties of surfaces and nanostructures, and surface modification with ions, electrons, photons, and etchants.

Weaver is author of -445 refereed papers, including feature articles in Scientific American, Physics Today, and Science, and 21 chapters and monographs. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He held the 1994-95 Amundson Professorship and received an Alexander von Humboldt Award to work at the Fritz-Haber-Institut in Berlin. He was University Professor at Tohoku University in 1994, and was awarded the Royal Society Kan Tong Po Professorship at the University of Hong Kong in 1995. Research & Development Magazine recognized him as their Scientist of the Year in 1997 with the citation that "his career exemplfies basic research at its best." Recently, he was Chief Judge for Singapore's National Science Talent Search.

Weaver has served on the AVS Board of Directors and on the executive committees of EMPD, Surface Science, and NSTD. He was elected AVS President in 1995, and he represented AVS on the Governing Board of the American Institute of Physics. He is, or has been, on the editorial boards of eleven journals, including JVST, and he was the launch editor of JVST-online. Presently, he is co-chair of the Surface Science Division of IUVSTA.