OSU, ONAMI Team Up to Hire Leading Materials Science Engineer

Story Posted: Tue, Dec 18, 2007

Media Contact: Gregg Kleiner, 541-737-9684
Sources: Skip Rung, 541-713-1331; Ron Adams, 541-737-3101

CORVALLIS – One of the nation’s leading electrical engineers and materials scientists has joined the College of Engineering at Oregon State University as the third Signature Faculty Fellow at the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI).

John F. Conley, Jr., whose career with industry spans more than a dozen years as a senior scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Dynamics Research Corporation and Sharp Laboratories of America, will help speed development and commercialization of new materials and devices currently underway at ONAMI and its affiliated Oregon research universities.

“John will be a catalyst in transforming Oregon’s academic research into applications and in inspiring and educating Oregon’s future engineers,” said Ron Adams, Dean of Engineering at OSU. “He is an excellent collaborator, and will tap his experience in both industry and academia to impact this state’s economic landscape. He’s a fine example of what happens when Oregon invests in both higher education and research.”

ONAMI contributed $500,000 toward Conley’s hire, much of which will be used to purchase new laboratory equipment to support his research. The ONAMI fellowships are a powerful recruiting tool for attracting top faculty OSU. "The combination of the excellent collaborative research environment on campus, the long term vision of the College of Engineering, and the generous ONAMI startup support convinced me that OSU was the best place to pursue an academic career," Conley said.

Conley’s research expertise include solid state materials and devices, directed assembly and device applications of nanomaterials, atomic layer deposition coating of nanomaterials, sensors, radiation effects, reliability, and electrically active point defects in novel electronic materials.

It is anticipated that Conley will generate significant research funding after his startup period through proposals to industry and federal agencies. He has authored or co-authored more than 90 technical papers, which have received more than 700 citations, and holds 10 U.S. patents, with ten more published and pending.

Conley is the third ONAMI Signature Faculty Fellow, joining Mas Subramanian, the OSU Harris Professor of Chemistry, and Landis Kannberg, director of the Microproducts Breakthrough Institute, a collaboration between OSU and the Pacific Northwest National Lab. Prior to joining OSU. Conley, who received his PhD in engineering science and mechanics in 1995 from Pennsylvania State University, already had several collaborative research projects underway through ONAMI.

“I congratulate OSU for attracting such an outstanding candidate with strong published research and industry experience, a passion for students and education, and established collaborations with many ONAMI partners,” said Skip Rung, president and executive director of ONAMI.

About the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute: ONAMI is the first Signature Research Center for the advancement of research toward the commercialization of innovative technology within Oregon and the Northwest. It represents an unprecedented collaboration between Oregon’s three public research universities – University of Oregon, Oregon State University, Portland State University – and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the state of Oregon, and the region’s high-technology industries.