Executive Council
The Executive Council consists of the elected representatives of the membership. According to the by-laws (Jan 2020 revision), “The Executive Council shall be composed of eleven (11) members: six Directors, one Commercial Director, and the following officers, the President, the President-Elect or Past-President, the Secretary, and the Treasurer.”
President (summer 2022- summer 2024)
Patrick Camus
Retired
Pen Argyl, PA 18072
Email: president -at- the-mas.org
Patrick received a BS in 1981 (University of Pittsburgh) and a Ph.D. in 1986 (University of Pittsburgh), all in Materials Science and Engineering. He joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, TN) as a post-doctoral scholar from 1986-1988. He worked at NBS/NIST (Gaithersburg, MD) from 1988-1990, moved to University of Wisconsin-Madison as Research Faculty with Thomas Kelly from 1990-1997 developing the hardware for the LEAP. He worked for NORAN Instruments, now Thermo Fisher Scientific, as Applications Scientist for Microanalysis from 1997-2013 in Madison, WI. He moved to EDAX (Mahwah, NJ) in 2013, starting as an Innovation Engineer and finishing as the Director of Research and Engineering. He received the Erwin Mueller Young Scientist Award in 1988 from IFES. He has helped organize 3 IFES meetings and was the Sponsorship Director of IUMAS-6. Patrick had vast experience in applying APFIM to materials characterization of phase transformations on the nanometer scale. He then moved into EDS, WDS, and EBSD to assist customers with microanalysis characterization on a wide variety of inorganic materials. He now is retired and spends his time volunteering for organizations like MAS.
Past President (term: summer 2020- summer 2022)
Heather Lowers
USGS
PO BOX 25046
Denver CO 80225
pastpres -at- the-mas.org
Heather joined MAS in 2001 as a student and continues as a regular member. She has served in the Society as Director, Secretary, and MicroNews editor, and is currently International Liaison. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Geology at Mount Union College, Alliance, OH (2000) and a Master’s Degree in Geochemistry from the Colorado School of Mines (2005). She specializes in microanalysis of rocks, minerals, and other materials from a wide variety of applications. As Director of the Denver Microbeam Laboratory, an analytical facility operated by the USGS Mineral Resources Program, she is responsible for a) developing and improving methods of electron beam microanalysis techniques as needed to address a broad range of earth science issues, b) work with colleagues to interpret the microanalysis data in the context of geologic processes, c) instruct scientists in the theory and operation of electron microbeam instruments and assist in data reduction, and d) development and maintenance of software for data reduction and operation of the electron microprobe and scanning electron microscope. While most of her research supports the Energy and Minerals USGS Mission areas, her knowledge of microanalysis and electron beam based instruments and software has allowed her to tweak existing methods, or create new methods to help collaborators in the Water, Climate and Land Use, Natural Hazards, and Ecosystems mission areas, and other Federal and State agencies such as US EPA, EPA National Enforcement Investigations Center (NEIC), Center for Disease Control (CDC), Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), US Public Health Service, FEMA, US Department of Justice, NASA, US Air Force, US Army, US Department of State, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, State of California, and the State of Colorado.
President-Elect
Andy Herzing
NIST
Andrew Herzing is a materials research engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, MD. He received his Ph.D. from Lehigh University in 2007 under the supervision of Christopher Kiely. Andrew’s primary research interest is the development and application of advanced transmission electron microscopy techniques for materials characterization. He is currently focused on 4D-STEM of characterization of organic semiconductors and electron tomography of complex semiconductor device architectures.
Secretary (2023 – 2025)
Owen K. Neill
Owen Neill holds a B.A. in Geology from Amherst College, a M.Sc. in Geology & Geophysics from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He spent four years as a research associate at Washington State University’s Peter Hooper GeoAnalytical Lab, and has been the manager of the Robert B. Mitchell Electron Microbeam Analysis Lab at the University of Michigan since 2017.
Treasurer (2021-2024)
Dave Tomlin
Senior Scientist
Azimuth Corporation
7427 Jordan Road
Lewisburg, OH 45338
E-mail: treasurer – at – the-mas.org
Dave Tomlin holds a BS in Chemistry (1985) and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry (1990) from Miami University, and was previously an NRC post-doctoral associate at the Naval Research Laboratory (1990-93). He is a Senior Scientist (1995-present) with Azimuth Corporation at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate (AFRL/RXAPA). His research interests are focused on utilizing optical, electron, and ion microscopes to investigate failures in semiconductor and electro-optic devices.
Commercial Director (2021 – 2023)
Steve Seddio
Applications Scientist
Thermo Fisher Scientific
5225 Verona Rd.
Fitchburg, WI 53711
Email: stephen.seddio-at-
Steve has been a member of the MAS since 2011. He received his B.A. Degree (2007) in Planetary Sciences from the University of Rochester and his M.A. and Ph.D. (2013) in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis. After a brief stint of crater counting on Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s moons, and Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, his research interests shifted a bit closer to home and has mostly focused on studying evolved lunar lithologies using X-ray microanalysis. His favorite element is zirconium.
Steve is currently the WDS and EDS Product Specialist for Thermo Fisher Scientific in Madison, WI and helps customers optimize their analysis.
Director (2021 – 2023)
Angela Halfpenny
Director, Integrated Shared Laboratory Management
Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Email: halfpeny -at- stanford.edu
Angela Halfpenny has been a member of MAS since 2018, after moving to the US. She earned a Masters degree in Earth Science (2002) and a Ph.D. in Structural Geology and Microscopy (2007) both at the University of Liverpool, UK. She then performed postdocs in structural and economic geology and microscopy at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia and at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Perth, Australia before becoming the Laboratory Manager for the Microscopy & Microanalysis Facility at Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
In February 2017, Angela moved to the United States to manage the Murdock Research Laboratory at Central Washington University before moving to the Stanford University Doerr School of Sustainability in 2022 as the director for integrated shared laboratory management. She has used and managed a variety of instruments including optical microscopes (RL, PPL, XPL, CL, Automated), XRF (portable, benchtop, Synchrotron), XRD, SEM (SE, BSE, CL, EBS, EBSD), TEM, Microprobe, ICP-OES, LA-ICP-MS, STA, IRMS, TOC, Isotope Analyzer, Clean Labs and sample preparation facilities.
Throughout her career, Angela has utilized advanced analytical instruments to explore the crystallography, mineralogy, chemistry and texture of rocks to determine their paragenesis. She has taught undergraduate and graduate level classes, supervises undergraduate and graduate level student’s research projects, and collaborates with a wide variety of disciplines including Geology, Chemistry, Physics, Civil Engineering, Environmental Studies, Geography, and Anthropology.
Angela works on developing new ways to prepare samples and develops/improves methods to broaden the capabilities of the existing analytical instruments and improve coincident data collection allowing the same area to be analysed via multiple techniques to provide an improved interpretation.
Joshua Taillon
Material Data Scientist
National Institute of Standards and Technology
325 Broadway, Boulder, CO, 80305, US
Email: joshua.taillon -at- nist.gov
Director (2022 – 2024)
Assel Aitkaliyeva
Assistant Professor Nuclear Engineering Program
Department of Materials Science & Engineering
University of Florida
100 Rhines Hall
Gainesville, FL 32611
Email: aitkaliyeva -at- mse.ufl.edu
Thomas Lam
Physical Scientist
Smithsonian Institution
4210 Silver Hill Rd.
Suitland, MD 20746
Email: LamT -at- SI.edu
Thomas joined MAS in 2014. Thomas has a BS (in 2004) and MS (in 2007) in Ceramic Engineering from Alfred University. He received a PhD (in 2011) in Ceramics from Alfred University. During his PhD, Thomas also worked at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (2008-2011). After his PhD, Thomas completed a postdoc at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). At NIST, Thomas worked on projects developing methodologies to visualize and characterize 3D nanostructures. Thomas was a Sr. Research Specialist at the Electron Microscopy Core Facility at the University of Missouri from 2014-2015. At the University of Missouri, he worked with the students and faculty to apply electron microscopy (SEM, SEM EDS, Electron Beam Lithography, TEM, STEM EDS, STEM EELS and EFTEM) research to their projects. Thomas joined the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute (MCI) in 2016. As a Physical Scientist, he applies his knowledge of material science and characterization skills of microscopy, SEM-EDS, cathodoluminescence (CL), or X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to contribute to the MCI Technical Studies team. Thomas has been involved with co-organizing and lead organizing cultural heritage topic symposiums for the Microscopy and Microanalysis Meetings in 2018 and 2021.
Director (2023 – 2025)
Katherine (Kate) Burgess
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
Washington, District of Columbia
Kate Burgess is a geologist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in the Nanoscale Materials Section, which she joined first as a post-doc in 2014 before converting to an employee. She obtained her PhD in Geological Sciences from Brown University and was a post-doc at University of Hawaii prior to coming to NRL.
Her work focuses on planetary materials and using electron microscopy and nanoscale observations to understand Solar System evolution and processes.
Jordan Hachtel
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge, TN 37830
Jordan is a Staff Scientist at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He began his microscopy career at ORNL in 2012 while a graduate student in the Department of Physics at Vanderbilt University. After graduating in 2016, he came to ORNL officially as a postdoc, and converted to a staff scientist at ORNL in 2019.
He has always focused on spectroscopy. First with core-loss electron energy-loss spectroscopy in semiconductor gate-stacks, then on the optical properties of complex plasmonic systems with cathodoluminescence spectroscopy. Recently, his work has been centered on ultra-low-loss excitations in monochromated EELS, where he strives to develop advanced experimental and data-analysis techniques and to expand the breadth of applications of monochromated EELS into quantum materials, power electronics, and biology.