Biography

	Dr. Don Eigler IBM Fellow IBM Almaden Research Center Dr. Don Eigler is a physicist who specializes in studying the physics of surfaces and nanometer-scale structures. In late 1989, using the liquid-helium-temperature scanning tunneling microscope that he had built, Dr. Eigler demonstrated for the first time the ability to build structures at the atomic level by spelling out "I-B-M" with individual xenon atoms. Since then, Dr. Eigler has led an active group of scientists in a series of experiments aimed at extending basic knowledge about the physics of atomic-scale structures and exploring the potential for atomic-scale logic and data-storage technologies. The group's results include discovering that magnetic impurity atoms alter the electronic structure of superconductors over a surprisingly short range, measuring for the first time how electrical conductance through single- and double-atom wires varies with element, inventing a new kind of electron trap called a "quantum corral," demonstrating the ability to image electron density waves on metal surfaces, and inventing an atomic-scale switch. Dr. Eigler was educated at the University of California at San Diego, where he received a bachelor's degree in physics (1975) and a doctorate in physics (1984). He was a Postdoctoral Member of the Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories for two years before joining IBM as a Research Staff Member in 1986. In 1993, Dr. Eigler was named an IBM Fellow, the highest technical honor in the corporation. Dr. Eigler is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1990, he received the Grand Award for Science and Technology in Popular Science magazine's Best of What's New competition. His group received the '93-'94 Newcomb Cleveland Prize given by the American Association for the Advancement of Science for the best paper published in Science magazine that academic year. He was the Alexander Cruickshank Lecturer in Physical Science at the 1994 Gordon Research Conferences. In 1995, the Goettingen Academy of Sciences in Germany awarded Dr. Eigler the Dannie Heineman Prize, which is awarded biennially for distinguished scientific achievements in natural science. In 1998, Dr. Eigler was named the Outstanding Alumnus of the Year by the University of California at San Diego Alumni Association. In 1999, he became the first winner of the Nanoscience Prize, which he received at the Fifth International Conference on Atomically Controlled Surfaces, Interfaces, and Nanostructures.

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