R. J. Phaneuf

Ray Phaneuf is Professor and past Interim Chair in the Department of Materials Sciences and Engineering at the University of Maryland. He earned his PhD in Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1985. He then joined the Physics Department at the University of Maryland, where he used electron diffraction to study phase transformations on stepped Si(111) surfaces, resulting in the identification of a thermodynamically driven faceting associated with the formation of the (7x7) reconstruction. In 1989 he was a visiting scientist with Ernst Bauer’s group in Clausthal, Germany, using low energy electron microscopy (LEEM) to image this faceting in real time. In 2000 he joined the Materials Science and Engineering Department, and began studies of directed self-organization during growth, etching and sublimation on semiconductor, insulator and polymer surfaces, using lithographic patterning as a means of controlling the length scale. He was an original member of the UM NSF-MRSEC. In 2006 he was a visiting professor at the National Nanotechnology Laboratory, in Lecce, Italy. He is the founding director of the Interdisciplinary Minor in Nanoscience and Technology at the UM. He is the author of more than 100 journal articles, and has given over 40 invited talks on his work in the US, Europe and Japan. He was named the Laboratory for Physical Sciences Faculty Researcher of the year in 2002. He was named Interim Chair of MSE in 2015. He also holds affiliate professor positions in Physics and ECE. His current research is in the fields of directing self-assembly of nanostructures at the mesoscale, plasmonics, and the application of nanotechnology to the conservation of cultural heritage.