Dr. John N. Russell, Jr., Head of the Naval Research Laboratory's Surface Chemistry Branch in the Chemistry Division, has been elected to the 2010 class of Fellows of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Russell is recognized for exceptional work in the field of surface chemistry that has focused on fundamental chemical reaction mechanisms and kinetics on metal and semiconductor surfaces, and for outstanding contributions to the ACS through the Colloid and Surface Chemistry Division and the ACS Council.
The ACS Fellows Program recognizes and honors members for their outstanding achievements in and contributions to the science, the profession, and service to the Society. Russell and the rest of the 2010 class will be honored at a special ceremony during the ACS National Meeting in Boston on Monday, August 23, 2010.
ACS has more than 161,000 members and is the world's largest scientific society. They are considered to be one of the world's leading sources of authoritative scientific information. ACS, a nonprofit organization, chartered by Congress, is at the forefront of the evolving worldwide chemical enterprise and the premier professional home for chemists, chemical engineers and related professions around the globe. ACS members span the breadth of academia, government and industry.
As the Head of the Surface Chemistry Branch, Russell directs a multidisciplinary research portfolio encompassing a broad scope of fundamental to applied surface chemical problems that range from 3-D nanoscale materials for energy storage, to tribological coatings, to surface (bio)adhesion, to chemical vapor deposition of electronic materials, to nanoscale lithography, devices, and chemical/biological sensors.
His personal research focuses on hybrid organic/semiconductor materials for sensor and electronic devices. In particular, he has been exploring methods for spatially-resolved functionalization of semiconductor surfaces with organic and biochemical compounds and developing techniques for their characterization. He also is interested in the chemical vapor deposition and surface chemistry of low-dielectric organic thin films.
Russell earned a bachelor's degree in Chemistry in 1981 from Dickinson College (with honors, cum laude), and in 1987 a doctorate in Physical Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh. He joined the research staff at the NRL in 1989 after a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Exxon Corporate Research Laboratory. He became the head of the Functional Materials Section in 1999 and has been head of the Surface Chemistry Branch since 2005. Among his 80+ technical publications are 1 patent, and more than 50 research papers in the peer reviewed literature, which have > 2,600 citations. He has given numerous invited presentations about his work.
He currently is the Chair of the ACS Joint Board-Council Committee on Publications, which has oversight over all of the ACS peer-reviewed journals. He also is the Chair of the Editorial Board of Chemical and Engineering News, the weekly news magazine of the ACS. He has served on several ACS taskforces, awards selection committees, and Editor-in-Chief search committees. Dr. Russell is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Encyclopedia of Surface and Colloid Science.
Russell was elected a Fellow of the American Vacuum Society (AVS) in 2006 and served as the AVS President in 2008. He has been honored with the NRL Chemistry Division Young Investigator Award and an NRL Berman Research Publication Award. He was inducted into 2008 class of the Berwick Area High School Academic Hall of Fame.