TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Diversity Award

• Call for Outputs/Acheivements

• Coming Events

• Annual Retreat

• Top 10 Paper

• New Member: Anne Runge

• SAB Meeting

• Signature Course

• Goodbye: Dana Riley Black

• Norfolk State Collaboration

• Discovery Corps Fellowhip

• Minority Expo

• Recruiting REU Students

• Recent Publications

New Center Member, Anne Runge, Reflects On Joining the Center and Attending the Retreat

I recently started working on a new project in Scott Saavedra’s lab at UA. This project, our lab’s first with the Center, focuses on electron transfer processes occurring at the interface of indium tin oxide and the organic molecules used in photovoltaic cells and light emitting diodes. I attended the CMDITR Retreat with Zeynep Ozkan, a second year graduate student who is working on the project with me. As a new Center member, it was great to see the full breadth of research being conducted within the Center and identify possible areas for contribution and collaboration with other members. I was impressed with the Center’s dual focus on research and education, the ideas going into the ‘signature course’, and the commitment to training students in skills specific to the Center’s research area. It was great to meet others doing research with the Center, and discuss ways to improve communication at the grad student/poctdoc working lunch.

I hope our project will advance the Center’s goals in terms of understanding processes occurring at the semiconductor/organic interface. Using potential modulated attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy (PM-ATR), we will monitor changes in the charge state of an adsorbed molecular film. This can be advantageous if there are orientational effects determining the rate of electron transfer, as linearly polarized light can be used to probe subpopulations in the molecular film and determine their orientation relative to the surface. We are working with students in Neal Armstrong’s group and hope to collaborate with other CMDITR members on projects to improve this interface in organic devices.

Month of Center Meetings Wraps up with Strategic Advisory Board Meeting in Seattle

On Feb. 25th, The Center wrapped up a full month of meetings with an all-day Strategic Advisory Board session. Attending Board members included: Edel Wasserman (DuPont), Jean Trewhella (IBM), Petra Lahaie (Vault Capital), Warren Buck (UW Bothell), Ralph Derrickson (RCollins Group) and Tadashi Miyashita (formerly of Photonic Integration Research, Inc.).

Center directors Alex Jen, Bernard Kippelen, Glen Shen, Ann Mescher, and Neal Armstrong provided updates on Center activities and the Board responded with a great deal of candid criticism and advice. Ed Wasserman, Chair of the SAB, focused discussion on effective communication of technical breakthroughs and issues regarding the Center’s renewal. Warren Buck shared many helpful perspectives on establishing long-term relationships with Norfolk State University and other HBCUs. Jean Trewhella and Ann Mescher reported on their prior day’s meeting with female graduate student Center members as to the need for improved recruitment and support for women and minorities at UW. Ann and Jean will continue this discussion into the future to formulate strategies and solutions.

Our thanks go to the entire Board for their interest and guidance and to Bill Krug of Boeing for his industry-based perspective on the future of opto-electronics. We look forward to engaging individual Board members for follow-up advice on presentation strategies, public relations, and internship opportunities. We also hope to see one or two Board members at our next NSF Site Visit on June 28-29.