|
|
-
Early promise
Klaus Schmidt-Rohr has been recognized for outstanding work at a
young age.
-
It seems natural for Klaus Schmidt-Rohr, associate professor of chemistry,
to receive the 2001 John H. Dillon Medal from the American Physical Society.
The medal, given annually by the American Physical Society, recognizes
outstanding research accomplishments by young polymer physicists who have
demonstrated exceptional research promise early in their careers.
The 34-year-old Schmidt-Rohr has shown promise throughout his academic
career. He skipped the seventh and tenth grades in high school and earned
his Ph.D. from Germany's Mainz University at age 24.
He has received numerous other awards throughout his brief career including
a postdoctoral fellowship sponsored by the German National Scholarship
Foundation, the Beckman Young Investigator Award, the Alfred P. Sloan
Research Fellowship, and the Rudolf-Kaiser Prize in 1996 from the German
Physical Society.
He is already the author of a book, MultiDimensional Solid-State NMR
and Polymers, which has been reprinted twice since its original publication
in 1994. Schmidt-Rohr wrote that book with his Ph.D. professor Hans W.
Spiess. The two are currently collaborating on an update of that book.
When the book was published, Schmidt-Rohr was a postdoctoral research
fellow in the University of California-Berkeley's department of chemistry.
Now that he is a professor in his own right (he also was on the faculty
at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst for five years), he says the
updated version will take a different approach in some areas.
"I've taught scientists in other disciplines and I've learned that
we have to make some of the introductory chapters more applicable to them,"
he said. "We received very positive reviews for the first edition.
We hope this edition will be accessible to a much broader audience."
The Dillon Medal is the first honor Schmidt-Rohr has received since joining
the Iowa State chemistry faculty last February. He was selected for "his
creative development of new NMR methods and their insightful use to elucidate
polymer structure and dynamics."
"I'm honored to be selected for this award," he said, "especially
when you look at the impressive list of previous recipients.
"The honor shows that our work is recognized as important and that
people in our field appreciate our insights."
Schmidt-Rohr's research strives to understand disordered complex materials,
in particular, solid polymers such as plastics, on a molecular level.
Polymers are made up of long chains of molecules that entangle and often
organize into small hard crystalline and soft noncrystalline regions.
Each chain runs through several of these domains and the combination of
hard and soft held together by the polymer chains provides materials that
don't break easily.
"In our research we use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) which is
a highly versatile technique and is uniquely suited to look inside these
complex materials," Schmidt-Rohr says. "We adapt and then apply
NMR to find out what the polymer molecules look like, how they are oriented,
and how they move."
Schmidt-Rohr's findings have provided insight into the origins of the
practical materials properties.
"Eventually these insights will lead to the development of materials
with improved properties," he said. "Our work has already helped
in the development of polyethylene material for water pipes with many
decades rather than just years of useful life."
Around LAS
February 12-18, 2001
|
|
