Paul Simmonds won the Young Investigator Award at the 34th North American Molecular Beam Epitaxy (NAMBE) conference, recently held in Banff, Canada. NAMBE is an influential annual meeting for scientists and engineers whose research relies on the growth of materials using the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) technique.
The NAMBE Young Investigator Award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the science and technology of MBE, or science and technology enabled by MBE, by the age of 40, and show promise of future leadership in the field. The award consists of a plaque and a check for $1,000.
Simmonds’ award citation was “for development of growth techniques for non-(001) surfaces and novel self-assembled nanostructures.” He pioneered an approach that allows researchers to grow technologically important nanostructures, called quantum dots, with unique properties derived from their unusual crystal orientation and tensile strain. This new family of nanostructures opens the door to a range of opportunities for research areas as diverse as quantum computing, spintronics and infrared optoelectronics.