Oscar Edgardo Vilches                                      

Professor Emeritus                                                                (206) 543-2393 

Department of Physics                                                          (206) 685-0635, FAX

University of Washington                                                     vilches@phys.washington.edu

Box 351560                                                                        lowtemp@u.washington.edu

Seattle, Washington  98195-1560

Education

University of Cuyo (Argentina), Licenciado in Physics, 1959

University of Cuyo (Argentina), Doctor in Physics (Low Temperature Physics), 1966

Appointments:

1956-59 Student Fellowship, Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Argentina 

      Undergraduate Student, Licenciado en Fisica (1959)

1959-60 President Fellowship, U. of British Columbia, Canada 

     Training in low temperature physics and cryogenics. Program sponsored by Atomic Energy International Agency and Argentina's National Science Foundation

1960-64, Staff Scientist, Centro Atomico Bariloche, Bariloche, Argentina 

      Construction of a low temperature physics laboratory.

1965-67, Pre- and Post-doctoral Associate, U. of Illinois at Urbana 

      Studies of paramagnetic salts at low temperatures, development of technical materials 

      for low temperature refrigeration, development of dilution refrigerator as a reliable  

      instrument to reach 0.003K temperatures, experiments on very low temperature superconductivity of tungsten/

1967-68, Post-doctoral Associate, U. of California, San Diego 

     Building of major low temperature physics research facility. 

1968-present, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Quantum and classical layers of atoms studied by a variety of techniques: adsorption isotherms, heat capacity, neutron diffraction, quasi-elastic and inelastic neutron scattering, quartz micro-balances and single carbon nanotube-yocto balances. 

     1968-1973, Assistant Professor of Physics, 1973-1979, Associate Professor of Physics, 1979-2006, Professor of Physics2006-        . Professor Emeritus (Physics)

Visiting Positions

Visiting Associate Professor, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil), 1975 

Visiting Professor, Faculté des Sciences de Luminy, Marseille (France), 1981, 1991, 1995, 1997

Awards

Outstanding  Physics Undergraduate Instructor, Society of Physics Students, U. of Washington, 1985, 1997, 2002 

Lifetime Achievement Award, Society of Physics Students, UW, 2006.

Fellow, American Physical Society, 1997.

Doctoral Dissertations

Mr. Eugene O. McLean:  " The very low temperature heat capacity of submonolayer helium films on graphite" (1972).

Mr. Donald C. Hickernell:  "Submonolayer isotopic mixtures of helium adsorbed on Grafoil" (1972).

Mr. Peter Rödhammer:  "Die Spezifische Waerme von Verduennten Loesungen von Wasserstoff in Niobium bei tiefen Temperaturen" (1972) (Technische Hochschule, Wien, Austria, work done with Fullbright Scholarship at U. of Washington, Seattle).

Ms. Suzanne V. Hering: " Heat capacity studies of submonolayer helium films on Grafoil" (1974).

Mr. Steven W. VanSciver: "The heat capacity of multilayers of ³He adsorbed on graphite" (1976)

Mr. Selden Crary: "Monolayer helium adsorbed on rare gas plated graphite – a heat capacity study" (1978).

Mr. Manu J. Tejwani: "Ordering transitions in Helium-4 submonolayers: a heat capacity study" (1979)

Mr. Olegario Ferreira: " Adsorção de hélio em Grafoil préviamente coberto com uma camada de criptônio" (1978) (Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil, work done at U. of Washington under FAPESP, Brazil, fellowship)

Ms. Christine E. Platt: "Fisher renormalization of the critical exponent at the order-disorder transition in ⁴He/graphite" (1986). 

Mr. Timothy S. Sullivan. "A thermodynamic study of phases and phase transitions in submonolayer rare gas films adsorbed on magnesium oxide" (1986).

Ms. Jian Ma. "A thermodynamic study of molecular hydrogen adsorbed on magnesium oxide" (1989). 

Mr. Dwight L. Kingsbury. "A Thermodynamic Studey of Submonolayer  ⁴He on Magnesium Oxide", (1991).

Mr. Fengchuan Liu. "Search for a Fluid Phase in Physisorbed Hydrogen Films" (1992).

Mr. Yuan-Ming Liu. "Studies of second layer hydrogens on graphite-H₂/HD/Gr and HD/HD/Gr" (1993). 

Mr. Peter S. Ebey. "Thermodynamic phases and adsorption energetics of monolayer Helium-four adsorbed on Hydrogen plated graphite" (1995). 

Mr. Roberto C. Ramos, Jr: "Liquid-Vapor coexistence in two-dimensional ³He-⁴He mixtures" (1999).

Mr. Tate A. Wilson, "Thermodynamics of Helium and Hydrogen films Adsorbed on Single-Wall Carbon Nanotube Bundles" (2004).

Mr. Subramanian Ramachandran. "Thermodynamic Study of One and Two Dimensional Neon Adsorbed on Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Bundles" (2007)