COSAM News Articles 2021 December Physicist from Auburn University selected for top paper by the Journal of Materials Research

Physicist from Auburn University selected for top paper by the Journal of Materials Research

Published: 12/09/2021

By: Maria Gebhardt

Congratulations to Ryan Comes from the Department of Physics for being the recipient of the 2021 Journal of Materials Research Early Career Scholar in Materials Science Prize.

Comes received this honor for his group's paper published in Jan. 2021 based on work in the FINO Lab. Graduate students Miles Blanchet, Patrick Gemperline, Rajendra Paudel, and Suresh Thapa were co-first authors on the paper.

Garry Messing, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Materials Research, presented Comes with the award via Zoom.

Messing said during the online presentation, “It was the best paper out of the 23 papers published in this sixth annual issue.”

The paper titled Probing surfaces and interfaces in complex oxide films via in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

“We were impressed with the quality of writing and the critical analysis of the related research,” Messing added.

Comes accepted the award and shared information about his research starting as a post-doc at Pacific Northwest National Lab in 2013 then as he began to build his lab his lab at Auburn University in 2016.

“The recognition on the part of JMR and the Materials Research Society means a lot to me because MRS is one of the leading societies for oxide films research dating back decades,” Comes said.

He continued to share during the presentation that quantum materials are particularly challenging to grow.

“We were able to build the first lab in the U.S. at our university with a hybrid oxide molecular beam epitaxy system connected to a XPIS under vacuum transfer line,” Comes explained.

View the video presentation of the award.