Ward Plummer

Earl Ward Plummer (October 30, 1940 – July 23, 2020) was an American

Plummer received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lewis & Clark College in 1962 and completed his Ph.D. degree in physics at Cornell University in 1967, working with Prof. Thor Rhodin.^[1][4] His thesis work was on atomic binding of 5-d transition-metal atoms using Field ion microscope (FIM).

Plummer accepted a

In 1973, Plummer accepted a position in the Physics Department at the University of Pennsylvania^[1][5] where his work mainly focused on

Plummer served on many national and international committees both to review existing scientific programs and to identify future directions for science and technology. Recent examples include: Chair of DOE-sponsored Workshop on "Soft X-Ray Science in the Next Millennium: The Future of Photon-In/Photon-Out Experiments, Pikeville, Tennessee, March 15–18, 2000, and Chair of DOE-BESAC (Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee) subpanel for the evaluation of the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source (IPNS) at Argonne National Laboratory and the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) Manuel Lujan Jr. Neutron Scattering Center.^[1] He also was a member of the DOE-Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee, 2001–2004.^[1]

He was the author of more than 400 refereed papers^[6] and included in the list of the 1,000 Most Cited Physicists, a list compiled by the Institute for Scientific Information which is based on papers published between 1981 and 1997. But what Plummer was proudest of in his long and distinguished career was the mentoring of promising young scientists. This included advising or co-advising Ph.D. theses of 40 graduate students, hosting ~25 postdoctoral fellows, and assisting many young scientists in advancing their careers. He died in Baton Rouge on July 23, 2020.^[6]

Awards and honors

• 1968 Wayne B. Nottingham Prize
• 1983
  Davisson-Germer Prize in Atomic or Surface Physics^[7] from the American Physical Society
  for "---the innovative application of electron spectroscopies."
• 1986 Guggenheim Fellowship^[8]
• 2001 Medard W. Welch Award by the American Vacuum Society.^[9] The citation reads, "For the development of novel instrumentation, its use to illuminate new concepts in the surface physics of metals, and the mentoring of promising young scientists."
• 2006 - Elected to National Academy of Sciences^[10]
• 2014 - Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences^[11]
• 2017 - International Science and Technology Cooperation Award
  People's Republic of China
• 2017 - LSU Boyd Professor ^[14][15]

Academic genealogy

Ward Plummer was a student of Thor Rhodin...^[4]

• Thor Rhodin was a student of Hugh Scott Taylor.
  • Taylor was a student of
    Frederick George Donnan
    and Henry Bassett [Ref.1].
    • Donnan was trained by Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald.
      • Ostwald's adviser was Carl Schmidt.
        • who was a student of Justus von Liebig.
    • Bassett was trained by Adolf von Baeyer and Victor Villiger.
      • Baeyer was a student of
        Friedrich August Kekulé
        .
        • Bunsen was a student of Friedrich Stromeyer.
        • Kekulé was a student of Heinrich Will.

Selected publications

• Plummer, E. W.; Eberhardt, W. (14 March 2007). "Angle-Resolved Photoemission as a Tool for the Study of Surfaces". Advances in Chemical Physics. Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 533–656.
  ISSN 1934-4791
  .
• Gadzuk, J. W.; Plummer, E. W. (1 July 1973). "Field Emission Energy Distribution (FEED)". Reviews of Modern Physics. 45 (3). American Physical Society (APS): 487–548.
  ISSN 0034-6861
  .
• Eberhardt, W.; Plummer, E. W. (15 April 1980). "Angle-resolved photoemission determination of the band structure and multielectron excitations in Ni". Physical Review B. 21 (8). American Physical Society (APS): 3245–3255.
  ISSN 0163-1829
  .
• Allyn, C. L., Gustafsson, T., Plummer E. W., Orientation of Co adsorbed on Ni(100), Chemical Physics Letters, 47 (1): 127-132, 1977
• Plummer, E. W.; Gustafsson, T.; Gudat, W.; Eastman, D. E. (1 June 1977). "Partial photoionization cross sections ofN2and CO using synchrotron radiation". Physical Review A. 15 (6). American Physical Society (APS): 2339–2355.
  ISSN 0556-2791
  .
• Eberhardt, W.; Greuter, F.; Plummer, E. W. (20 April 1981). "Bonding of H to Ni, Pd, and Pt Surfaces". Physical Review Letters. 46 (16). American Physical Society (APS): 1085–1088.
  ISSN 0031-9007
  .
• Plummer, E. W.; Salaneck, W. R.; Miller, J. S. (15 August 1978). "Photoelectron spectra of transition-metal carbonyl complexes: comparison with the spectra of adsorbed CO". Physical Review B. 18 (4). American Physical Society (APS): 1673–1701.
  ISSN 0163-1829
  .
• Chen, C. T.; Tjeng, L. H.; Rudolf, P.; Meigs, G.; Rowe, J. E.; Chen, J.; McCauley, J. P.; Smith, A. B.; McGhie, A. R.; Romanow, W. J.; Plummer, E. W. (1991). "Electronic states and phases of KxC60 from photoemission and X-ray absorption spectroscopy" (PDF). Nature. 352 (6336). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 603–605.
  S2CID 4316368
  .
• Carpinelli, Joseph M.; Weitering, Hanno H.; Plummer, E. Ward; Stumpf, Roland (1996). "Direct observation of a surface charge density wave". Nature. 381 (6581). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 398–400.
  S2CID 4324202
  .
• Ho, W.; Willis, R. F.; Plummer, E. W. (29 May 1978). "Observation of Nondipole Electron Impact Vibrational Excitations: H on W (100)". Physical Review Letters. 40 (22). American Physical Society (APS): 1463–1466.
  ISSN 0031-9007
  .

• Department of Physics at LSU
• LinkedIn Ward Plummer Physics Club
• Ward Plummer at University of Tennessee
• Peter D. Johnson, Wilson Ho, Eugene J. Mele, Mike Klein and Johanna Plummer, "E. Ward Plummer", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2022)

References