Spring 2024 Physics Careers Seminar Series Continues on April 18 with Alumnus Dr. Jeremy Grace from IDEX Health & Science

The Spring 2024 Physics Careers Seminar series continues on Thursday, April 18 with a talk by alumnus Dr. Jeremy Grace from IDEX Health & Science, who will talk about "A Career Path in Industrial R&D: Manufacturing Research and Engineering" at 11:00 am in 204 Loomis (Interaction Room). Details of his seminar are given below.

Time: 11:00 am Central Time on Thursday, April 18, 2024

Location: 204 Loomis (Interaction Room). A Zoom link will also be forwarded to the Illinois Physics Grad Student email list. For a copy of the link, please contact Lance Cooper (slcooper@illinois.edu).

Title: A Career Path in Industrial R&D: Manufacturing Research and Engineering

Speaker: Dr. Jeremy Grace, IDEX Health & Science

Abstract: The focus of Manufacturing Research and Engineering is sometimes described as the science and technology of “better, faster, cheaper”. Things like quality and cost can take on a comparable role to that of physical quantities in scientific research. Ultimately, there are scientific principles that determine product performance and play a significant role in performance/cost trade-offs. Because of the variety of disciplines involved designing developing, and producing a consumer product, scientists and engineers with generalist mindsets can play important roles. Jeremy will discuss his career path and share some examples from his work in Industrial R&D on plasma surface modification of polymers and adhesion metrology.

Bio: Upon completing his doctoral studies in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics at UIUC, Jeremy began his career in Thin-Film Science and Technology. As a post-doctoral scientist, he worked in the area of metal-polymer interfaces at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and on sputter-deposited high-Tc thin films at the Argonne National Laboratory. Following his post-doctoral research appointments, he joined the Vacuum Coating Laboratory at the Eastman Kodak Company. At Kodak, Jeremy's focus was plasma modification of polymer surfaces, including research and development of roll-to-roll plasma treatment processes and development of practical adhesion metrology to quantify the efficacy of plasma treatments. Jeremy also led work to combine characterization of species densities in a nitrogen plasma treatment source with analysis of nitrogen uptake characteristics to provide a simple model for the treatment process. Jeremy also became involved in Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) display technology, developing a simple vapor flow model to provide design rules for vapor sources used in large-area deposition of the organic electroluminescent materials. Jeremy left Kodak to join IDEX Health & Science, where he works on design and production of high-performance thin-film optical filters.

Jeremy's collaborative work with surface scientists in the Kodak Research Laboratories and his interactions with colleagues at technical conferences inspired him to develop a short course on Plasma Web Treatment for the Society of Vacuum Coaters (SVC). More recently, he developed a short course for the SVC on Design of Experiments for Research and Development, based on his years of experience applying concepts of experimental design to his work.

You can see the rest of the Spring 2024 Physics Careers Seminar series here: https://physics.illinois.edu/calendar/careers-seminar