1984: Peter Eng
Peter J. Eng
Senior Research Associate
Consortium for Advanced Radiation Sources
University of Chicago
5640 S. Ellis Ave
Chicago, IL 60637
Office Phone: (773) 702-2064
FAX: (773) 702-5454
eng@cars.uchicago.edu
Education:
Ph.D.: Physics, State University of New York at Stony Brook,
December, 1991
Thesis: High Resolution Surface X-ray Diffraction Study of Pb
Monolayer
Superlattice Ordering Kinetics on Ni(001)
Thesis Advisor: Professor Peter W. Stephens
B.S.: Physics, State University of New York
College at Cortland, May, 1984
Winner, 1984 Sigma Xi Undergraduate Research Competition, SUNY at
Cortland:
"L - Shell Proton Ionization Cross-sections Between 50 and
400 KeV."
Regional President, Society of Physics Students (1982-1983)
Member, Physics Honor Society, Sigma Pi Sigma (1982)
Professional Experience:
April 1994 - Current: Research Scientist, Consortium for Advanced
Radiation Sources, University of Chicago. Research: Study
of interfaces found in condensed mater and the environment using
x-ray diffraction at 2nd and 3rd generation synchrotron source.
Development of a laboratory for Geological, Soil and
Environmental (GSECARS) research on sector 13 of the
Advanced Photon Source (APS).
Director: Prof. Keith Moffat
April 1992 - April 1994: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dept. of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign / AT&T Bell Laboratories Research: Study of the structure, kinetics, and phase transitions of surfaces and interfaces, using x-ray diffraction at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS.) Supervisor: Prof. Ian K. Robinson
April 1991 - April 1992: Postdoctoral MTS,
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ
Research: study of the structure, kinetics, and phase transitions
of surfaces and interfaces, using x-ray diffraction at the NSLS.
Supervisor: Dr. Ian K. Robinson, DMTS
January 1987 - April 1991: Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Physics, SUNY at Stony Brook Designed and principally responsible for the construction of the X3B2 NSLS beamline surface x-ray diffraction UHV chamber, x-ray monochromator and other subsystems for beamline operations. Supervisor: Prof. Peter W. Stephens September 1984 - January, 1987: Teaching Assistant, Department of Physics, SUNY at Stony Brook Taught undergraduate electronics lab. Supervisor: Prof. Peter Koch
Summer 1984: Summer Research Assistant, SUNY at Stony Brook. Built UHV chamber and sample manipulator for positioning and heating a W single crystal. Supervisor: Prof. Peter Stephens.
September 1983 - May 1984: Teaching Assistant,
Dept. of Physics, SUNY College at Cortland, NY
Taught undergraduate Introductory Physics recitations.
Supervisor: Prof. Boris Leaf
Summer 1983: Summer Undergraduate Research Assistant, SUNY X21 Beamline NSLS. Built and tested beamline components. Supervisor: Prof. Walter Gibson & Prof. Peter Stephens
Summer 1982: Summer Undergraduate Research Assistant, SUNY at Cortland. Rebuilt 500 KeV VanDeGraf accelerator for the study of Proton K shell and L shell ionization cross sections. Supervisor: Prof. Richard Wheeler
Community Service:
April 1997 - Current: Member, APS User Organization Steering
Committee. Makes policy and advises the director of the APS
on issues pertaining to user research on the APS beamlines.
February 1992 - October 1993: Member, NSLS X-ray
Scattering Proposal Studies Panel.
Reviewer of x-ray scattering general user proposals for the NSLS
x-ray ring.
Professional Affiliations:
American Physical Society
American Geophysical Union
Research Interests:
My research interests predominately lie in the physics and
chemistry of lower dimensional systems. My aim has been to
understand the effects that the reduced dimensionality of a
surface or interface has on a system's time evolution, dynamics
and structure. Specifically I have studied 2-D nucleation and
growth kinetics interface erosion and growth surface segregation
and reconstruction overlayer structures and 2-D charge density
waves . These problems were all investigated in a UHV environment
using Lower Dimensional X-ray Diffraction (LDXD) which derives
its surface sensitivity from two properties that are inherent to
scattering from interfaces. The first of these properties results
from the breaking of translation symmetry converting reciprocal
lattice points into rods, referred to as Crystal Truncation Rods
(CTR). The second property arises from the sudden change in the
dielectric constant across the interface. This results in
evanescent wave scattering where x-rays impinging at grazing
incidence angles are totally externally reflected, penetrating
only a few layers. Whereas these two scattering methods have
often been used independently the success of my work stems from
their combined use in LDXD providing new information about
interfaces. From this work, my interests have broadened and
I am now employing my research experience in condensed matter
physics in new fields and techniques. Presently I am applying the
technique of LDXD as well as x-ray absorption fine structure
(XAFS), x-ray fluorescence microprobe, microtomography and
microcrystallography to problems in environmental science. One of
the main thrusts of this work is to better understand the
transport and bio-availability of toxic species in the Earth's
crust. Through the combination of these five techniques I
am able to study such problems as the: nature of the aqueous
solid interface; short and intermediate range structure of cation
and anion coordination environments in adsorbates on mineral
surfaces; microdistribution of chemical species in rocks, soil
and plants; role of micro-organisms in controlling metal
speciation and reactions; efficacy of waste encapsulation
materials; crystal chemistry of strategic and toxic elements;
fluid transport mechanisms in rocks.
Personal:
I married Chris Nippert-Eng (Cortland class of 82) on August 1984
and have two daughters Gretchen (10) and Catherine (3) and a
black lab JJ (11). Wemoved to Chicago six years ago after living
on eastern Long Island for ten years. We now live on the
"South Side" in Hyde Park where my girls go to the
University of Chicago Lab school. Chris is an associate professor
of Sociology at the Illinois Institute of Technology only a
ten-minute trip a few blocks north.