Dr. Hanno Weitering is busy these days, settling into a new office and making plans for his laboratory space in the Science and Engineering Research Facility. After spending a year at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands, he has returned to the physics department to build a research program on thin films, coating layers so thin that only their surface properties are used. 
Dr. Weitering rejoins the University as a joint faculty member, spending 70 percent of his time at UT and 30 percent with Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Solid State Division. His fellow collaborators are Ward Plummer (UT-ORNL Distinguished Scientist), John Wendelken, Art Baddorf, Zhenyu Zhang, and Jian Shen. While at Delft he was a group leader and professor in the Department of Applied Physics. He said part of the agreement when he returned to UT was "to really establish a research presence on the campus."
That research involves growing and studying thin films, specifically to investigate their electrical conductivity.
"It's not just making materials," he said. "It's measuring their properties."
Looking at films a mere one or few atoms thick can help researchers understand the characteristics of small objects. This has implications for the world of nanomaterials, Dr. Weitering said, because "most of the links are by electrical currents." Understanding basic properties, such as how current flows through new materials, "has always been at the core of condensed matter physics," he said.
Funding for the work has come from the Navy, The Tennessee Advanced Materials Laboratory, the UT Office of Research, Science Alliance, and the College of Arts and Sciences.
Though his research has moved back to the United States, Dr. Weitering is still working with three graduate students at Delft.
"We're still interacting," he said. "I'm still their thesis advisor."
One of his students hopes to spend a considerable amount of time in Tennessee working on graduate research. He's also trying to convince a post-doc from Delft to come to UT to help build his new materials laboratory once major equipment begins arriving in the spring.
"I really want to get my personal research program quickly off the ground again," he said.
Attracting new students and postdocs is an important part of realizing that goal. Dr. Weitering will take the lead in recruiting, not only for his program at UT, but also for his coworkers at the ORNL Solid State Division.
"There are a lot of things that we will do together," he said.
These joint UT/ORNL projects will offer students a wide range of opportunities in condensed matter research.
Department Head Soren Sorensen expressed the department's enthusiasm for Dr. Weitering's return to UT.
"Losing Hanno was devastating to us," Dr. Sorensen said. "Getting [him] back is probably the most exciting thing that happened in the department this year."
With Dr. Weitering on board, he said the physics department has a great new generation of scientists to further develop the strong condensed matter program already in place.
"Together with Pencheng (Dai) and David (Mandrus), Hanno constitutes our group of three young lions who will lead our efforts to be a top 10 university in experimental condensed matter physics," he said.
Cross Sections, Fall/Winter 2001 Issue, Contents Page UT Physics News & Notes Page UT Physics Home Page This page was last updated on December 21, 2001. Please send comments to cal@utk.edu. |