Abstract
Peter Eklund grew up in Southern California and attended the University of California at Berkeley, majoring in physics. After working for one year at the Lockheed Missile and Space Company in Sunnyvale, California, he left to pursue graduate studies at Purdue University. There he carried out PhD research in strongly correlated electron and phonon systems under the supervision of J M Honig and L L van Zandt.
Peter joined the group of Millie and Gene Dresselhaus at MIT in 1974 as a Postdoctoral Fellow after one year as an instructor at the University of Kentucky. At MIT, he continued work on strongly correlated systems in collaboration with Professor David Adler (who had an adjoining office), but for the most part he got excited about sp2 carbon systems and graphite intercalation compounds, a new research direction which the Dresselhaus group had started one year before Peter's arrival at MIT. Over the next 35 years Peter, Millie and Gene co-authored over 50 research articles, several review articles, and a big nine-hundred-and-fifty page book. In 1974, they saw graphite intercalation compounds as a long-neglected research direction of great promise. They studied these new materials together over the next 16 years, focusing on their optical spectroscopy. Their pioneering vibrational spectroscopy studies provided a means to characterize the fundamental properties of carbon materials. Optical spectroscopy became a centerpiece in the research portfolios of all three, both when they were together at MIT and after Peter left for the University of Kentucky in 1977 to start his independent career as an Assistant Professor of Physics.
Peter became a full Professor at Kentucky in 1986. He continued to work with Millie and Gene and also acquired an ever-expanding network of students, postdocs and collaborators. As each new carbon nanostructure emerged—graphite intercalation compounds, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and most recently graphene—Peter was at the cutting edge, leading the charge forward. His work on fullerenes, starting around 1988, culminated in a book co-authored with Millie and Gene in 1996, The Science of Fullerenes and Carbon Nanotubes [1]. Through careful sample handling and analysis, his group at Kentucky discovered the mechanism of photo-polymerization in fullerenes. In 2000, Peter co-edited the research monograph Fullerene Polymers and Fullerene Polymer Composites with A M Rao, a former student [2]. His group at Kentucky also performed the first definitive Raman study of the phonons responsible for superconductivity in alkali-doped fullerene compounds. Peter was awarded the prestigious University of Kentucky Research Professorship for his contributions to graduate education and research discoveries in carbon materials.
In the summer of 1991, Peter held early discussions with his two long-time collaborators on the possibility of carbon nanotubes. These discussions inspired a talk by Millie at a fullerene workshop the next day concerning the possible existence of single-walled carbon nanotubes [3]. The first papers by Iijima on the synthesis of multiwalled nanotubes appeared soon thereafter [4]. In 1994, Peter measured an early Raman spectrum on a sample containing just 1% of single-walled tubes. On the basis of this early work, he convinced Rick Smalley to provide him with a proper sample of single-walled carbon nanotubes in 1996; this is the sample on which the highly cited single-walled carbon nanotube Raman spectrum was taken [5]. Carbon nanotubes then became a central focus of the Eklund group. Peter, Millie and Gene worked together on many aspects of carbon nanotubes, including the study of infrared-active modes, Raman active modes, Raman spectra for single-walled nanotubes, and the differences in the Raman spectra of semiconducting and metallic tubes. In 2009 they combined efforts to investigate phonons in graphene.
Peter was also an entrepreneur. He started a company, CarboLex, to make and sell nanotubes in large quantities, thereby giving industrial support to advancing fundamental science. He co-founded two additional companies: PhotoStealth produced computer-generated camouflage patterns printed on textiles and ICMR pursued laser-driven synthesis of nanoparticles and coatings. ICMR moved from Lexington to Silicon Valley and evolved into Nanogram, later reorganized as NeoPhotonics. Both CarboLex and NeoPhotonics are still actively engaged in the research and development of nano-materials.
Peter joined the Physics Department at Penn State University in 1999, becoming a Distinguished Professor in 2008. In 2002, he also joined the faculty of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. In addition to further seminal work on carbon materials, Peter initiated a research effort in semiconducting nanowires, obtaining the first clear evidence of phonon confinement in 1D nanostructures. After the Novoselov-Geim work on monolayer graphene appeared, once again Peter Eklund was there to publish very early Raman spectra on monolayer, bilayer and few-layer graphene. Thus, the work of Peter Eklund unfolds the leading wave of discoveries in carbon nanostructures starting in 1974 and continuing over a thirty-five year period to August 2009.
Peter mentored more than 40 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. He co-authored over 300 research articles and more than 20 chapters in monographs. His scientific oeuvre has been cited more than 16 000 times. Peter acquired three US patents with five more pending. He was recognized with the Japan Carbon Award (2008), the American Carbon Society Graffin Award (2005), American Physical Society Fellowship (1990), and visiting/honorary professorships in Nankai University, Yokohama City University, Shinshu University, Tokyo Science University, and (as a visiting scientist) in the Solid State Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. From 2003 to 2006 he was a member of the Solid State Sciences Committee of the US National Academy of Sciences.
Peter enjoyed challenges. He was in his glory while interpreting the stories told by experimental data in partnership with his colleagues and research team of dedicated postdocs and students. Peter was admired all over the world for his creativity, his kindness, his engaging personality, his breadth of interests, his sensitive character and his quick wit.
Several friends have shared their memories:
Kumble Subbaswamy (University of Kentucky, USA): 'Peter, along with Karen, were the gentlest and most generous souls I have ever met. He picked up stray dogs and stray graduate students alike, nurturing them through sickness and health. I will never forget the hospice-like care he provided to one international student who worked in his lab, but succumbed to cancer.
In his early days at Kentucky, when funds to support his research were very scarce, he made frequent visits to the military surplus store nearby and behaved like a kid in a candy store, bringing back all sorts of electrical and mechanical parts for his experiments. It is in no small measure due to this ability that he built such a successful career.
Peter was without peer when it came to instrument design and fabrication. I mentioned to him, during my job interview at the University of Kentucky (where he arrived one year before me), my interest in studying the Raman spectra of molten alkali halides. Several months later when I arrived on campus, I was surprised to find he had constructed a beautifully crafted Raman chamber supporting a contactless molten sample! He had anticipated and addressed every possible complication.'
Qihua Xiong (Nanyang Technical University, Singapore): 'Peter was a great mentor; he knew how to stimulate students to explore their full potential. Students could knock on his door with questions or with new data any time. He was always patient. He explained physics with his fountain pen on a notepad or with a marker on a white board until students understood.
When students made mistakes, he never blamed the student, because he believed it is part of training to allow students to make mistakes. I once designed a mask adapter to connect our existing three-inch photomasks to Srinivas's four-inch mask aligner. The design looked beautiful and the machine shop did a perfect job to machine and polish the piece. Unfortunately, I made a stupid mistake. The central opening was slightly larger than the square vacuum groves behind the mask holder and as a result, it leaked! I was very disappointed in myself, as I not only wasted grant money but also delayed our experiment. Peter patted my shoulder, picked up a sharpie and wrote on the mask adapter, 'even great people make mistakes, but they learn.' So we machined another one, and it worked well. This failure piece still stands on my bookshelf. I keep it as a motto: it warns me not to make any mistakes like that, but more importantly it encourages me to be a supervisor like Peter.'
Joe Brill (University of Kentucky, USA): 'Peter's occasional impetuousness and his love of physics are illustrated by the following anecdote. In December, 1979, I had just joined the faculty at the University of Kentucky, excited about the prospect of collaborating with Peter, who had arrived two years before. I was, therefore, dumbfounded when Peter abruptly announced his resignation to join IBM to do research on printer ink. After less than two days at IBM, however, he sheepishly asked to come back to the UK, explaining that he couldn't enjoy doing research that didn't involve 'h-bar'. His UK colleagues, who had not even had the chance to raid his lab, of course agreed with great amusement and relief. His joy and enthusiasm for physics remained contagious and unforgettable.'
Milton Cole (Penn State University, USA): 'Somehow my very last conversation with Peter, two days before his death, typified the hundreds of conversations we had about science, or even philosophy. His first words after greeting me consisted of a hypothetical explanation of the physical mechanism of a new intravenous tube he was obliged to use. He conveyed on that occasion the very same excitement that he displayed years earlier when he volunteered to present a demonstration of electrical circuitry to a group of third-grade students. Those eight-year olds became as enthusiastic as Peter. It is no wonder that Peter was so admired and loved.'
Jackie Bortiatynski (Penn State University, USA): 'I loved working with Peter on summer science camps for kids. He was creative, funny, brilliant, and an inspiration. I just don't know where he got all his energy. I will truly miss him as a colleague.'
Toshiaki Enoki (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan): 'Peter was very serious in his research work, but he also had an amiable personality with a very good sense of humour. I remember the occasion of a small international workshop, which was chaired by me in Ise, Japan in 1985. We had serious and intensive discussions in the scientific session, then in the evening we enjoyed an excursion and banquet in Ise, a small old town with a famous shrine named Ise Jingu. Peter romped out with joy wearing yukata (Japanese traditional night clothes) after taking a hot spring.'
Robert Haddon (University of California, Riverside, USA): 'Peter was the driving force in creating a position for me at the University of Kentucky in 1997. After I joined Kentucky, we immediately focused on the large-scale synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes and we became one of a handful of research groups that could produce single-walled nanotubes in quantity. Soon after, we founded CarboLex and the university was awarded an NSF MRSEC on Advanced Carbon Materials. For most of the time that I spent at Kentucky, our research groups met as a unit and our collaboration greatly assisted me in making the transition to academia. Above all, Peter was a physicist in very much the same tradition as the great colleagues that I had been privileged to work with at the Bell Labs. Peter and Karen made me welcome in their home from the time I arrived in Lexington and I have fond memories of the time we spent together.'
Keith Williams (University of Virginia, USA): 'In 1993, Peter introduced me, in the dark, to his postdoc Apparao Rao, who was then doing Raman on C60 at Kentucky. I thought it was pretty interesting and that was how I began working for Peter. I was an exile from high-energy physics: the SSC had just been canceled and I had drifted in and out of biophysics and AMO and finally settled on Peter's brand of experimental nanomaterials physics. I immediately enjoyed Peter's ingenuity and his wonderful sense of humour. One aspect of Peter's character not widely appreciated by his students was his thrift: if something could be made, borrowed (with or without consent), or used after-hours then he always advocated that strongly. More than once, we got demo equipment, ran an all-nighter on it to collect data and then sent it back a day later. Almost nothing was bought off the shelf! Peter attributed these tendencies to his ancestry, and that was an unending joke between us. Of course, the strategy of making every penny count benefited me greatly in the long run, and last year I told him I had outdone him in my lab: almost everything was built from scratch, and everything else was on loan. He smiled a proud smile. On the personal side, however, Peter was always very generous; I fondly recall the dinners with him and Karen and the other students, their beloved dogs, with the Beach Boys inevitably playing in the background. Peter and Karen were wonderful to me and so many other students, and it didn't surprise me at all to learn that Peter's last scientific concern was that a proposal had been funded and that his students were going to be okay.'
Kenichi Kojima (Yokohama City University, Japan): 'In 1997, Peter came to Yokohama as a Guest Professor at Yokohama City University to give his lectures to our graduate students. Peter was an excellent lecturer, of course. But when I played tennis with him for the first time, I found that he was an amazing tennis player as well. He hit the ball really hard, and his serves were amazingly fast. During his stay, Peter liked stopping over at a typical traditional Japanese-style pub for dinner by himself. One day he wanted to have a beer before dinner. However, he was not sure how to order draft beer in Japanese, and the manager of the pub did not understand English. He carefully listened to what the customers around him said when they ordered beer. He then said in a loud voice, 'Please give me a glass of mama beer.' In Japan, female servers in pubs are often called 'mama' by customers, and we call draft beer 'nama beer' because 'nama' means 'living' in Japanese. Probably 'nama' sounded like 'mama' to Peter. Later he proudly told me, with a happy smile, how he got a delicious draft Kirin beer. Peter loved not only science but also traditional Japanese culture. He was a polished person. I would like to show you the words written in his own hand in my visitor's book when he came to my home after playing tennis in 1997. May his soul rest in peace!'
Millie Dresselhaus (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA): 'At the time of Peter's entry into the study of sp2 carbons in 1974, the field was an eclectic area of science that only interested a small group of aficionados. Through his many contributions during the next 35 years as well as those of others, the field has grown dramatically, and now it is a major area of interest in condensed matter and materials physics worldwide. Working on joint projects together with Peter Eklund was both educational and enjoyable. In our joint efforts, I was responsible for the big picture, Peter was the master of experimental details and Gene Dresselhaus was the man responsible for getting things done well and on time.
During the last 35 years of his life, starting from his postdoctoral period, we enjoyed a close working relation, especially for the first 25 of these years, overlapping with his stay at the University of Kentucky. As his career developed, our relationship changed from a postdoctoral advisor, to a collaborator, friend, and confidant. After his mother passed away I assumed the role of his 'second mother' as he called me. We remained very close personally, even though far away in location and despite his many other professional collaborators. Looking to the future, life without Peter will never be the same.'
References
[1] Dresselhaus M S, Dresselhaus G, and Eklund P C 1996 Science of Fullerenes and Carbon Nanotubes (New York: Academic Press)
[2] Eklund P C and Rao A M 1999 Fullerene Polymers and Fullerene-Polymer Composites (Springer Series in Materials Science vol 38) (Berlin: Springer)
[3] Dresselhaus M S 1991 Recent advances in electronic materials Proc. of the 38th Sagamore Army Mater. Res. Conf. (Watertown, MA, Materials Technology Laboratory) ed Thomas V Hynes p 45
[4] Iijima S 1991 Helical microtubules of graphitic carbon Nature 354 56–8
[5] Rao A M, Richter E, Bandow S, Chase B, Eklund P C, Williams K W, Fang S, Subbaswamy K R, Menon M, Thess A, Smalley R E, Dresselhaus G and Dresselhaus M S 1997 Diameter-selective Raman scattering from vibrational modes in carbon nanotubes Science 275 187–91