Prize Recipient

Karin Rabe
Rutgers University

"For research, writings and presentations on the theory of structural phase transitions and for the application of first-principles electronic structure methods to the understanding of technologically important phenomena in ferroelectrics."

Karin Rabe received her AB in physics from Princeton University (1982) and her PhD in physics from MIT (1987). Following two postdoctoral years in the Theory Department at AT&T Bell Laboratories, she joined the departments of applied physics and physics at Yale University, with tenure in 1995, and moved to the department of physics and astronomy at Rutgers in 2000. She has published more than 100 papers in the theoretical analysis and prediction of the properties of materials. Her main interests are in the application of first-principles methods to the study of systems at or near structural phase transitions, including ferroelectrics, piezoelectrics, high-k dielectrics, multiferroics and shape-memory compounds. Recently she has focused on the effects of epitaxial strain and interfaces in thin films and superlattices. She is co-editor of the book Physics of Ferroelectrics: a Modern Perspective, published in 2007. She is currently a member of the Editorial Boards of Physical Review B and of Journal of PhysicsCondensed Matter, as well as a Trustee and Vice President of the Aspen Center for Physics. Her professional recognition includes a Presidential Young Investigator award (1990), an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (1991) and fellowship in the American Physical Society (2003).

Julie Ann Borchers (Chair), U. Diebold, S. Bader, Z. Fisk, D. Tomanek