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Austin chemist wins national award for high-tech research

Chemist John M. White of Austin, Texas, will be honored April 3 by the world's largest scientific society for his insights into the chemistry of surfaces, which governs the etching of computer circuits, breakdown of exhaust pollutants and a variety of other processes. He will receive the 2001 Arthur A. Adamson Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Surface Chemistry from the American Chemical Society at its national meeting in San Diego.

One of White's major projects is developing compounds for the high-tech market 10 years from now, said the Robert A. Welch professor of chemistry, who is also director of two University of Texas, Austin, centers for electronic materials and for materials chemistry.

One material his research team is developing prevents electron flow - that is, a short-circuit - between key components of ever-smaller computer memory and processors. Called high-dielectric-constant oxides, the insulators will ultimately be only about four molecules thick.

"It's got to be flat, with no holes in it for electrons to sneak through, so the molecules need to line up perfectly," said White. To craft such a structure, he takes large starting molecules and pares them down into compact oxides through surface chemistry.

Sometimes his discoveries are more fundamental, said White: "One experiment I'm proud of showed you actually could get bonds, excited by light energy, to break in a molecule stuck on a metal surface." Previously most researchers believed the metal would absorb too much of the bond-breaking energy to allow such manipulation.

When White was young, he didn't imagine being a chemist, he said. "I grew up on a farm in Illinois, and I started out as an agricultural engineer in school. But when I took freshman chemistry I found I liked it. I'd actually been doing a lot of chemistry growing up - I had my own darkroom, for example - but I just didn't realize it."

White received his undergraduate degree from Harding University in 1960 and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1966. He is a member of the ACS division of colloid and surface chemistry.

The ACS Arthur A. Adamson Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Surface Chemistry is sponsored by Occidental Petroleum Corp.

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