Address

Personal Information:

United States Citizen.
Married, two children (born 1995, 1997).

Education

• Ph.D. in Physics, University of California at Berkeley. 1985.
Thesis: Optical Properties and Atomic Structure of Cleaved Silicon and Germanium (111) Surfaces as Determined by Photothermal Displacement Spectroscopy
• M.A. in Physics, University of California at Berkeley. 1982.
• B.A. in Physics with Highest Honors, Swarthmore College. 1979.

Professional Experience

• University of Washington, Seattle.
  
• Director, Nanotechnology Ph.D. Program:  2004-present;
  
• Professor of Physics and Adjunct Professor of Chemistry: 1997-present;
  
• Associate Professor: 1993-1997;
  
• Assistant Professor: 1991-1993.
• University of California, Berkeley.
  
• Assistant Professor of Physics: 1986-1990;
  
• Faculty Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory: 1988-1992.
• Xerox Corporation, Palo Alto Research Center.
  
• Member of Research Staff, General Sciences Laboratory: 1985-1986.
  
• Consultant: 1986-1992.

Professional Awards

• Fellow, American Physical Society.  2003.
Citation:  "For innovative studies of interface formation between dissimilar materials, especially the competition betwen thermodynamic and kinetic constraints in controlling morphologies and properties of heterostructures."
• Alexander von Humboldt Forschungspreis fuer auslaendische Spitzenwissenschaftler (Research Award to Outstanding Foreign Scholars). 1999.
• University of Washington Society of Physics Students Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award. 1999.
• American Physical Society Maria Geoppert-Mayer Award. 1996.
Citation: "For her innovative application of electron spectroscopies to surfaces and interfaces that has elucidated the importance of interfacial reactions on the structure, properties and morphology of both the interface and growing film in systems involving dissimilar materials, especially when heteroepitaxy is involved"
• American Vacuum Society Peter Mark Memorial Award. 1994.
Citation: "For elucidating the nature of semiconductor surfaces and the heteroepitaxial growth of insulating materials on these surfaces."
• Fellow, American Vacuum Society. 1994.
• Department of Energy 2% Initiative Competition. 1989.
• National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award. 1987.
• IBM Faculty Development Award. 1986 and 1987.

Awards to Students Under Professor Olmstead's Supervision

• IBM Graduate Fellowship.  Awarded to Esmeralda Yitamben, 2007-08.
• University of Washington Department of Physics Karrer Scholarship.  Awarded to Tracy Lovejoy, 2007.
  
• Center for Nanotechnology IGERT Traineeship.  Awarded to Tracy Lovejoy, 2006-07 and 2007-08.
  
• Nanoscale Science and Technology Workshop 2004 Best Student Presentation Award.  Awarded to Diedrich Schmidt, 2004.
• Joint Institute for Nanoscience Graduate Fellowship.  Awarded to Diedrich Schmidt, 2001-2004.
• University Initiatives Fund Graduate Fellowship in Nanotechnology.  Awarded to Taisuke Ohta, 2002-2004.
  
• American Vacuum Society Pacific Northwest Chapter Best Student Presentation Award. Awarded to Aaron Bostwick, 2002.
• University of Washington Department of Physics Henderson Prize (for outstanding Ph.D. thesis).  Awarded to Shuang Meng, 2001.
• University of Washington Bonderman Honors Travel Fellowship.  Awarded to Adrian Fehr, 2000.
• Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.  Awarded to Adrian Fehr, 2000.
• American Vacuum Society Hoffmann Travel Award. Awarded to Brett Schroeder and Shuang Meng, 1999; Awarded to Aaron Bostwick and Jonathan Adams, 2000.
• University of Washington Mary Gates Research Scholar. Awarded to Adrian Fehr, 1998-9.
• American Vacuum Society Electronic Materials and Processing Division Student Award. Awarded to Brett Schroeder, 1998;  Awarded to Michael Leskovar, 1994.
• American Vacuum Society 20^th Applied Surface Analysis and 10^th Pacific Northwest Chapter Symposium Student Presentation Award. Awarded to Brett Schroeder, 1998.
• University of Washington Department of Physics Robert Dahlstrom Prize (for outstanding graduate student in experimental physics). Awarded to Uwe Hessinger, 1995.
• Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award. Awarded to Uwe Hessinger, 1994.
• American Vacuum Society Pacific Northwest Chapter Best Student Presentation Award. Awarded to Uwe Hessinger, 1994.
• Department of Education National Needs Fellowship. Awarded to Eli Rotenberg, 1990-92.
• University of California Presidents' Undergraduate Fellowship for Research. Awarded to Ali Yazdani, 1988.

Professional Activities

• University of Washington
• Center for Nanotechnology.  Director, Nanotechnology Ph.D. Program (2004 –); Member Steering Committee (1999 –); Principal Investigator IGERT (2004 – ); Chair, Nanotechnology Ph.D. Standards Committee (2000 – );
  
• Center for Institutional Change.  Member ADVANCE Leadership team (2003 – ).
• Faculty Council on the Status of Women in Academia (2005 – ).
• Molecular Engineering Initiative, Member Advisory Group (2006 – ).
  
• American Physical Society (member 1981-):
• Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (1997-99). Chair 1999.
• Maria Goeppert-Mayer Prize Selection Committee (1997).
• Davisson-Germer Prize Selection Committee (1994, 1996).
• Research at Undergraduate Institutions Prize Selection Committee (1998-99). Chair 1999.
• American Vacuum Society (member 1984-; fellow 1994):
• Pacific Northwest Chapter Executive Committee (1994-). Chair 1998-99.
• Electronic Materials & Processing Division. Program (1993-95) and Executive (1995-96) Committees.
• Northern California Chapter Surface/Interface Executive Committee (1985-1990). Co-chair 1985.
• Synchrotron Users Organization Executive Committees:
• Advanced Light Source (1995-96).
• Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (1986-90). Chair 1988-89.

Former Doctoral Students and Their Current Situation

• Chih-Yuan (Claire) Lu (UW Seattle, Materials Science, August 2007, joint student with Fumio Ohuchi) "Group III-Selenides:  New Silicon Compatible Semiconducting Materials for Phase Change Memory Applications"
  Staff Scientist, Intel Corporation, Portland, OR
  
• Ngigi (Isaiah) wa Gatuna (UW Seattle, Materials Science, July 2007, joint student with Fumio Ohuchi) "Intrinsic Vacancy Chalcogenides asDilute Magnetic Semiconductors: Theoretical Investigation of Transition -Metal Doped Gallium Selenide"
• Diedrich Schmidt (UW Seattle, Physics, August 2005)  "Titanium dioxide thin films:  Understanding nanoscale oxide heteroepitaxy for silicon-based applications
  Post-doctoral Fellow, Institute for Young Scholars, Tsukuba, Japan (2005-07)
  Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Bochem, Germany (2008 –)
  
• Aaron Bostwick (UW Seattle, Physics, November 2004) " Interaction of Electrons with CaF2 Films on Silicon(111):  Structural and Electronic Changes"
  Initial Appointment: Postdoctoral Fellow, Advanced Light Source, Berkeley.
  Current Position:  Staff Scientist, Advanced Light Source, Berkeley
  
• Taisuke Ohta (UW Seattle, Materials Science and Engineering, August 2004; co-advise w/ Prof. Fumio Ohuchi) “Heteroepitaxy of gallium-selenide on Si(100) and (111): New silicon-compatible semiconductor thin films for nano structure formation”
  Initial Appointment:  Post-doctoral Fellow, Advanced Light Source, Berkeley, and Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin.
  Current Position:  Staff Scientist, Sandia National Laboratory
• Jonathan Adams (UW Seattle, Physics, August 2004) "A Surface and Interface Study of Aluminum Selenide on Silicon:  Growth and Characterization of Thin Films"
  Market risk and financial technology consultant for Advanced Portfolio Technologies (London)
• Shuang Meng (UW Seattle, Physics, December 2000) "Heteroepitaxy of Ga-Se Compounds on Silicon"
  Initial Appointment:  Staff Scientist, Micron Industries, Boise
  Current Position:  Working in China.
  
• Brett Schroeder (UW Seattle, Physics, December 2000) "Surface Modification Enhanced Semiconductor-on-Insulator Heteroepitaxy."
  Initial Appointment:  Staff Engineer, Intel Corporation, Portland.
  Current Position:  Working towards Masters in Business Administration, Teaching Part Time at Portland State University.
  
• Michael Leskovar (UW Seattle, Physics, June 1998) "The Stability of Interfaces between Dissimilar Materials."
  Staff Engineer, Boeing Corporation, Kent, WA.
  
• Uwe Hessinger (UW Seattle, Physics, March 1996) "Growth Kinetics in Heteroepitaxy."
  Staff Scientist, Lattice Semiconductor Corporation, Hillsboro, OR
• Eli Rotenberg (UC Berkeley, Physics, August, 1993) "Geometrical Effects in Core-Level Spectroscopy of Insulators"
  Staff Scientist, Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, CA.
  
• Jonathan Denlinger (UC Berkeley, Physics, January, 1993) "Structural Studies of the Initial Stages of Fluoride Epitaxy on Si and Ge(111)."
Staff Scientist, Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, CA.