Schiffer Elected Fellow of American Physical Society

13 April 2005 — Peter E. Schiffer, professor of physics at Penn State, has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). The society is the largest physics organization in the world and publishes a wide range of research journals. The APS Fellowship Program recognizes members who have made advances in knowledge through original research and publication, have made significant and innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology, or who have made significant contributions to the teaching of physics or to service opportunities and activities of the society. Each year the society elects no more than one-half of one percent of its then-current membership to the status of Fellow in the American Physical Society.

Schiffer was recognized "for pioneering studies of novel magnetic materials, including colossal-magnetoresistance manganites and geometrically frustrated magnets." Magnetic materials are crucial to many technologies, from computer hard drives to electric motors, and are the basis for one of the largest areas of modern condensed-matter-physics research.

Schiffer works on a range of different magnetic-material systems, including manganese-based rare-earth perovskites that display an extremely large change in resistance when subjected to magnetic fields. As a result, these compounds have been called "colossal-magnetoresistance materials," but they also display such unusual behavior as real-space charge ordering and macroscopic phase separation between different magnetic and electronic ground states. Schiffer also studies semiconducting materials that are ferromagnetic—or materials that can be magnetized like iron. These materials could lead to the development of a range of novel "spintronic" devices that could potentially integrate both memory and computation. He also works on so-called "geometrically frustrated magnets" in which the magnetic interactions between individual pairs of atoms compete with each other and prevent the system from minimizing the energy of all the local interactions. This condition can result in unusual magnetic states such as "spin liquids" in which the magnetic behavior mimics the structural properties of a liquid.

Another focus of Schiffer's research is the study of the dynamic and static properties of granular materials, such as sand, that are composed of separate solid grains. Such materials display behavior that can be like a solid in some ways, and like a liquid in others. One particular topic Schiffer has studied is the physics of granular materials to which small amounts of liquid have been added, leading to both lubrication and cohesion of the grains. The increased stability of wet granular media is demonstrated on beaches around the world through the construction of sand castles and amazing sand art. "Looking at granular materials after they get wet and begin clumping, you see a completely different dynamic," Schiffer says. "Even simple questions about the physics involved do not have good answers because there is no good theoretical framework."

Schiffer’s research has been recognized with a National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award in 1997, a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 1997, and a Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in 1998. He has published 95 scientific papers, and has given invited talks and presentations at universities and professional conferences around the world.

Schiffer has served the Department of Physics as director of graduate studies, as co-principle investigator for the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, and as chair of the graduate-candidacy, promotion-and-tenure, and introductory-course committees. He also has been on the university-wide graduate council, and the Intercollegiate Materials Program steering committee, and is currently a member of the Materials Research Institute advisory board.

Schiffer joined the faculty at Penn State as associate professor of physics in 2000 and was promoted to professor in 2003. He was an assistant professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame from 1995 to 2000 and was a postdoctoral technical-staff member at AT&T Bell Laboratories from 1993 to 1995. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics at Yale University in 1988 and earned his doctoral degree in physics at Stanford University in 1993.

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