2014 Spring Buessem Award Winner
The Spring 2014 recipient of the Wilhelm R. Buessem Award is Yao Xi of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Director of the International Center for Dielectric Research (ICDR).
The Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics honored Dr. Yao with the 2014 Wilhelm R Buessem Award CDP Award Dinner in State College, Pennsylvania, on May 16 ,2014. Xi Yao graduated from Jiaotong University, China in 1957, majoring in Electrical Engineering. From 1957 to 1979, he served as an assistant, lecturer of the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, Xi’an Jiaotong University. In 1979, he visited the Materials Research Laboratory, Penn State University, USA, where he received his Ph.D in Solid State Science in 1982 and completed his postdoctoral research.
He returned to China in 1983 as an associate professor of Xi’an Jiaotong University. He was soon granted full professorship and became supervisor of doctorate students, the first doctorate supervisor in the field of Electronic Materials and Devices in China. In 1986, he founded and started to organize the Electronic Materials Research Laboratory (EMRL) in Xi’an Jiaotong University.
With his promotion, and at his suggestion, in 2009 the International Center for Dielectric Research (ICDR) at Xi’an Jiaotong University was founded, and he became the director and chair of the Center.
Yao’s research interests include dielectric materials and devices, ferroelectrics, piezoelectric/pyroelectric materials/devices, oxide and compound semiconductors and devices, functional nano composite materials and devices, and integrated ferroelectrics. He has published more than 500 refereed papers, authored or co-authored 7 books, and holds 12 patents in China, Singapore, and USA.
In 2006 he designed and began to publish a Classical Dielectric Science Book Series in China, a wonderful resource for Chinese students and researchers in obtaining these milestone books. At the same time, he began to discuss and seek support for the launching of a new journal focusing on dielectrics; in 2010, a new academic journal Jurnal of Advanced Dielectrics (JAD) was first published, and he served as the Editor in Chief.
He received the 1982 Xerox Award in recognition of his contributions in the study of lithium niobate bicrystals, as the best PhD thesis in Materials Science. In 1985, he won the Ross-Coffin-Purdy Award from the American Ceramic Society. In 1997, he was honored with the Science and Technology Award from the HLHL Foundation, Hong Kong. In 2002, he was awarded by IEEE the Ferroelectric Recognition Award for “technical innovation in the ferroelectric field, educational leadership in electronic ceramics in China, and outstanding service to the ferroelectric community, both domestically and internationally”.
Xi Yao is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Engineering of the USA. He is one of the founding members of the World Academy of Ceramics, founding chairman of the Asian Ferroelectric Association, and member of the International Ferroelectric Advisory Committee. He is a fellow of the American Ceramic Society, a senior member of IEEE, and a member of the UFFC committee of the Institute.