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Steven Richardson (physicist)

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Steven L. Richardson
Born (1953-07-22) July 22, 1953 (age 71)
Alma materOhio State University
Scientific career
Thesis[ProQuest 303192093 Part I: Numerical Investigation of the RKKY Interaction in a BCS Superconductor; Part II: Dynamical Analysis of Leed from the (110) Surfaces of Sustitionally Disordered Gallium(X)Aluminum(1-X)Arsenide] (1983)
Doctoral advisorBruce R. Patton

Steven Leslie Richardson (born July 22, 1953) is an American physicist and professor of electrical engineering. He is currently a professor emeritus at Howard University, a co-principal investigator in the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center for Integrated Quantum Materials, and a Faculty Associate in Applied Physics in the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University.

He is recognized for his research contributions to computational materials science and computational chemistry.[1]

Early life and education

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Steven Leslie Richardson was born on July 22, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York, to Edward Alfred Richardson and Juanita Pearl Richardson. One of five children, he grew up in the Brevoort Houses.[2] Edward Richardson was a subway conductor and Juanita Richardson was a nurse. He attended Brooklyn Preparatory High School for his secondary education.[3]

He attended Columbia University as a National Achievement Scholar studying chemistry. Richardson subsequently earned a master's degree in 1981 and a Ph.D. in 1983 from the Ohio State University, both degrees in theoretical condensed matter physics.[4] Richardson transferred to Ohio State from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with his graduate advisor, Bruce Patton.[5] Evelynn Hammonds, Sylvester James Gates and Reynold Verret were fellow students of Richardson's at MIT, and while there, Shirley Ann Jackson encouraged him to switch his concentration to condensed matter physics.[5][6]

During his doctoral studies, Richardson held a position as an IBM Minority Graduate Fellow and a Xerox Graduate Fellow. While working at Xerox, he and his advisor, Charles B. Duke, discovered a new reconstructed semiconductor surface GaAs(110) for GaAs.[3]

Career

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Following his doctoral studies, Richardson completed a Chancellor's Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, and was also a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.[3] At UC Berkeley he worked under Marvin L. Cohen. From 1986 to 1988, he was a program director for the Condensed Matter Theory Program of the National Science Foundation and as a senior research scientist at the Eastman Kodak Company.[7]

He then joined the faculty of Howard University, serving as the associate director of the Materials Research Center for Excellence from 1989 to 1994. Concurrently, between 1989 and 1995 he was also an associate professor of electrical engineering at Howard. In 1995 he was promoted to full professor.[6]

Richardson has also served as a visiting professor and a visiting scientist at numerous universities throughout his career, including Iowa State University; Bradley University; the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, Portugal; Emory University; and the Center for Computational Materials Science at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. He was the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2016 to 2017.[8][1] He has been a member of numerous professional organizations including the American Physical Society, American Chemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[3]

Awards

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Research

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Richardson's research has centered around computational materials science and computational chemistry, including the use of supercomputers to calculate the structural, electronic and vibrational properties of molecules. His work has been supported by funding from institutions including the Office of Naval Research, U.S. Department of Energy, W. M. Keck Foundation, Boeing Corporation, and the National Science Foundation.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Reese, Nadia (2022-03-14). "Howard U professor Steven Richardson elected to AAAS as 2022 fellow". AFRO American Newspapers. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
  2. ^ Crowe, Larry (14 July 2012). "Finding Aid to The HistoryMakers ® Video Oral History with Steven Richardson" (PDF). The History Makers. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Steven Richardson's Biography". The HistoryMakers. Retrieved 2023-05-14.
  4. ^ "Steven Richardson | MIT MLK Visiting Scholars & Professors Program". mlkscholars.mit.edu. Retrieved 2023-05-14.
  5. ^ a b Richardson, Steven Leslie (1983). Part I. Numerical investigation of the RKKY interaction in a BCS superconductor. Part II. Dynamical analysis of LEED from the (110) surfaces of substitutionally disordered Ga/sub x/Al/sub 1-x/As (Thesis). OCLC 1194758429. ProQuest 303192093.
  6. ^ a b Richardson, Steven. Curriculum Vitae. Box 1, folder 45. Ronald E. Mickens collection on African-American physicists, circa 1950–2008. Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics. 12 March 2023. https://libserv.aip.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=O67863697N88V.2444105&menu=search&aspect=power&npp=10&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=rev-all&ri=3&source=%7E%21horizon&index=.GW&term=%22harold+ralph+lewis%22&x=0&y=0&aspect=power
  7. ^ a b "2022–2023 Lecturers". www.sigmaxi.org. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
  8. ^ Mickens, Ronald E. (1999). The African American Presence in Physics. Atlanta, Georgia. p. 69.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ "Science & Engineering Faculty Directory: Steven L. Richardson". projects.vassar.edu. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
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