MSA Names David Seidman Distinguished Scientist

Northwestern Engineering’s David Seidman has been named the 2020 Distinguished Scientist – Physical Sciences by the Microscopy Society of America (MSA).

The award honors Seidman, the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering, for his advances in atom-probe tomography technology and his materials science applications, which include studies of imperfections in metals, interfacial segregation in materials, and a fundamental understanding of precipitation in metallic alloys.

The Distinguished Scientist Award is the latest honor for Seidman, whose research interests include the development of high-temperature cobalt-based superalloys, high-temperature aluminum alloys, high-strength and high-toughness steels, high-temperature nickel-based alloys and superconducting radio frequency cavities.

In 2018, Seidman was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest honors in the field. In 2010, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Twice, he’s received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial fellowship. He has been awarded an ASM Gold Medal, served as a fellow for the inaugural class of the International Field Emission Society, a fellow of the Materials Research Society, is a fellow of many professional societies, and earned the ASM International Edward DeMille Campbell Memorial Lectureship.

Seidman is founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Atom-Probe Tomography and a prolific author of academic papers. He has served as a member of the International Advisory Board of the department of materials science and engineering at Tel Aviv University, is a governor of the board of governors of Tel Aviv University, on the advisory board of Materials Research Letters for Taylor & Francis Publishers, and served as co-editor of a volume of Annual Review of Materials Research on the subject of 3D tomography of materials.

The Distinguished Scientist Awards recognize preeminent senior scientists from both the biological and physical disciplines, who have a long-standing record of achievement during their career in the field of microscopy or microanalysis.