About the event

For the final event in the Perspectives in Nanotechnology seminar series, MIT.nano is delighted to host Don Eigler. Rather than present from behind a podium, Mr. Eigler will sit with a former student and colleague for a wide ranging conversation about his accomplishments and career.

Reception to follow featuring an exhibition of microscopy artwork by the MIT community. Co-organized with the MIT Graduate Student Council (GSC). Experience the nano and microscale world in this exhibition of microscopy artwork presented by MIT students, faculty and staff in 4th floor R&D Common in the Stata Center.  

This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required.

Biography

Don Eigler is a physicist, Kavli Laureate and former IBM Fellow. Don was the founding leader of the Low Temperature Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Project at IBM’s Almaden Research Center.  While he is most often noted for his 1989 demonstration of the ability to manipulate individual atoms, it was his seminal efforts to take tunneling microscopes to low temperatures that have had the greatest impact.  While at IBM, his research was aimed at understanding the physics of nanometer-scale structures and exploring their applications to computation. In 2011 Don left IBM to found The Wetnose Institute for Advanced Pelagic Studies, a private institute devoted to creating opportunities for scientists to conduct studies free from the administrative responsibilities, financial demands and diversionary cacophony that accompany more traditional positions. 

Don received both his bachelors and doctorate degrees from the University of California San Diego and was named its Outstanding Alumnus of the year in 1999. He has been recognized for his accomplishments with the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience, the Davisson-Germer Prize, the Dannie Heineman Prize, the Newcomb-Cleveland Prize, the Grand Award for Science and Technology, the Nanoscience Prize, and numerous honorary lectureships. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Max Planck Society and the United States National Academy of Sciences. He is the recipient of honorary doctoral degrees from the Technical University of Delft and the University of Warwick.