UC Berkeley Press Release

Materials science researcher receives early career award

by Sarah Yang, Media Relations | 13 June 2005

BERKELEY – A materials science researcher from the University of California, Berkeley, will receive the nation's highest honor for scientists at the early stages of their careers at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., today (Monday, June 13).

John H. Marburger III, science advisor to the president and director of the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, will present the 2004 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) to Oscar Dubon Jr. and 57 other scientists and engineers around the country. The PECASE award recognizes the most promising young researchers in the nation.

Oscar Dubon Jr.

Dubon is an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at UC Berkeley and a faculty scientist in the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

His research focuses on semiconductor materials and manufacturing methods that address challenges presented by nanoscale electronics. He applies advanced thin-film growth techniques to control how different materials grow on each other to form new materials systems with unique chemical, physical and electronic properties. His lab is currently investigating the growth of semiconductors on patterned and electrically insulating surfaces.

"We are exploring methods to manipulate how atoms of different materials interact with each other on a surface so that the atoms of one material can assemble into ordered crystalline nanostructures," said Dubon.

This research may lead to fundamental breakthroughs in the realization of complex semiconductor systems for applications in nanoelectronics, he said.

Dubon's research is supported by the National Science Foundation. Eight different federal agencies sponsored the 58 recipients.