Rate My Professor David N. Seidman

David N. Seidman is the Walter P. Murphy Professor Emeritus of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University within the Engineering faculty. He is the Founding Director of the Northwestern University Center for Atom-Probe Tomography (NUCAPT), a facility providing atomic-scale three-dimensional materials characterization since 2004. Seidman earned his B.S. and M.S. in Physical Metallurgy and Physics from New York University and his Ph.D. in Physical Metallurgy and Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1965, with a thesis on sources of thermally generated vacancies in gold under advisor Robert W. Balluffi. He began his academic career at Cornell University, where he initiated field-ion microscopy studies of point defects and constructed the first fully computer-controlled ultrahigh vacuum atom-probe field-ion microscope. In 1985, he joined Northwestern University as a professor of materials science and engineering and was appointed Walter P. Murphy Professor in 1996.

Seidman's research specializes in atom-probe tomography (APT) for atomic-resolution imaging and analysis of materials, including metallic nanostructures, phase transformations in metals and alloys, dislocation-free deformation mechanisms in gum-metal alloys, high-entropy superalloys, precipitate evolution and strengthening in aluminum-scandium-zirconium alloys, dopant diffusion in silicon nanowires and epitaxial layers, and irradiation effects in nuclear materials. He employs complementary techniques such as scanning tunneling spectroscopy and synchrotron X-ray characterization. Notable publications include "High-performance bulk thermoelectrics with all-scale hierarchical architectures" (Nature, 2012), "Mechanical behavior and strengthening mechanisms in ultrafine grain precipitation-strengthened aluminum alloy" (Acta Materialia, 2014), "Precipitation strengthening at ambient and elevated temperatures of heat-treatable Al(Sc) alloys" (Acta Materialia, 2002), "Analysis of three-dimensional atom-probe data by the proximity histogram" (Microscopy and Microanalysis, 2000), and "Nanoscale structural evolution of Al3Sc precipitates in Al(Sc) alloys" (Acta Materialia, 2001). His pioneering work in APT has profoundly impacted materials science by enabling unprecedented atomic-scale insights into microstructure-property relationships. Seidman has received major awards including election to the National Academy of Engineering (2018), ASM International Gold Medal (2019), Microanalysis Society Peter Duncumb Award (2019), Materials Research Society David Turnbull Lecturer Award (2008), ASM International Albert Sauveur Achievement Award (2006), and Max Planck Research Prize (1993). He has mentored 55 Ph.D. students and 53 postdocs, served as editor-in-chief of Interface Science and on editorial boards of MRS Bulletin, Materials Today, and Materials Research Letters, and was president of the International Field Emission Society (2000-2002).