Phaedon Avouris

Innovator of the potential for carbon nanotubes to compete with the long-established silicon transistor for important information technology applications, Avouris is a Greek chemical physicist who has served as an IBM Fellow and group leader for Nanometer Scale Science and Technology at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. He is a pioneer in nanoscience and nanotechnology; his research work having a profound impact on our understanding of the physics, chemistry, and applications of nanoscale materials, to such an extent that he is sometimes called a founder of the fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology. His research contributions to nanoscience, starting with his early work on the physical chemistry of the surfaces of solids with adsorbed atoms and molecules, and leading to his later work which focused on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene for electronics and photonics applications, added up to over 400 publications and 25,000 citations.

His innovations created the potential for carbon nanotubes to compete with the long-established silicon transistor for important information technology applications. Avouris demonstrated fully functional transistors based on a single carbon nanotube molecule that is about 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. He also demonstrated an electrically induced and controlled light source based on a single nanotube molecule.

He organized an early conference on nanotechnology in 1992, sponsored by NATO and the Engineering Foundation, and edited one of the first books on nanoscience, Atomic and Nanometer Scale Modification of Materials (Plenum, 1993). Avouris has served on the advisory editorial boards of numerous journals devoted to nanoscience and technology and has been an editor of the Springer book series on nanoscience. He published articles explaining nanoscience and nanotechnology in MRS Bulletin, IEEE Spectrum, Physics Today, Materials Today, Accounts of Chemical Research, and Industrial Physicist. He trained many postdoctoral researchers who went on to academic and industrial positions around the world.

He received his B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from the Aristotle University in Greece in 1968 and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Michigan State University in 1974. After postdoctoral work in Physical Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, and AT&T Bell Labs, Avouris joined the IBM Research Division in 1978 and became Manager of Chemical Physics in 1984. He was named an IBM Fellow in 2004, the highest honor a scientist, engineer, or programmer at IBM can achieve. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University and at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

In addition, he has been a recipient of the IBM Pat Goldberg Memorial Award and several IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement awards. Avouris is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Athens, as well as a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), the U.K. Institute of Physics, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Vacuum Society (AVS), the New York Academy of Science, and the World Technology Network. His honors include the Irving Langmuir Prize for Chemical Physics (American Physical Society), the Medard W. Welch Award (American Vacuum Society), the IEEE Nanotechnology Pioneer Award, the Richard Feynman Prize for Nanotechnology (Foresight Institute), the Richard E. Smalley Prize (Electrochemical Society), the Julius Springer Award for Applied Physics, and the AVS Nanotechnology Research Award.