February 9, 2017
Michael C. Tringides received the 2017 Theodore E. Madey Award from the American Vacuum Society for his excellence in internationally collaborative research.
Tringides, a scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Ames Laboratory and a professor of physics and astronomy at Iowa State University explores how atoms move on surfaces. The process is essential in making nanotechnologies, such as computer transistors of much smaller size.
According to Tringides, a computer’s speed depends on how far the electrons have to go across transistors. Current computer transistors may have hundreds of atoms along a linear dimension. Tringides hopes his work will be used to reduce that to only two or three.