In Memoriam
Hans-Christian Pfeiffer
The EIPBN community mourns the loss of Hans-Christian Pfeiffer, who passed away on November 15, 2022, at the age of 85. Dr. Pfeiffer was the EIPBN conference chair in 1988. An obituary can be found at here. The following is a paragraph written by Prof. R. Fabian Pease in memory of Dr. Pfeiffer.
Hans-Christian Pfeiffer was a towering figure in electron lithography; particularly the engineering of shaped beam tools. He was already working on that when I first met him at the 3-Beams conference in 1969. He struck me as technically astute with an engaging personality and that impression has remained with me. At IBM he was largely responsible for generations of shaped beam electron lithography tools starting with a fixed shaped system (‘Apsra’) used for personalizing chips for use in mainframe computers, a series of variable-shape tools also used for personalizing chips, and finally Prevail, a high current mask projection system. He had tremendous powers of persuasion and great charisma. He and I didn’t always agree on technical matters, but I always valued his friendship and advice. He was elected IBM Fellow in 1985.
Michael Hatzakis
The EIPBN community mourns the loss of Michael Hatzakis, who passed away on February 3, 2023. Mike was a leader in microelectronics research and made fundamental contributions to the development of electron beam lithography. He was a member of the EIPBN Advisory Committee and served as the Program Chair for EIPBN 1983 in Los Angeles and the Conference Chair for EIPBN 1984 in Tarrytown, NY. Mike was also a founder of the Micro and Nano Engineering (MNE) conference, the EIPBN sister conference in Europe. He served as the Conference Chairman for MNE 1997 and was an Honorary Member of the Conference Committee for MNE 2008, both held in Athens.
Mike received his BS and MSc degrees in Electrical Engineering from New York University in 1964 and 1967, respectively. He joined IBM Research at Yorktown Heights in 1961 and had been a group manager on lithography, packaging, and circuit fabrication. He pioneered the development of electron beam lithography, PMMA resist, and the “lift off” process. In 1989 he served as the founding Director of the Institute of Microelectronics at the National Center of Scientific Research (NCSR) Demokritos in Greece until his retirement. He holds more than 20 patents in the field of micro/nanofabrication and has authored hundreds of publications in the field. Mike was named as an IBM Fellow in 1988 and was elected as a member of the US National Academy of Engineering in 1989. He was also an active member of IEEE, ECS, AVS, MRS, Eta Kappa Nu, and Tau Beta Pi.
Michael Hatzakis will be dearly missed by many within the microelectronics and nanofabrication community.
A memorial tribute to Mike can be found on the Institute for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology website: https://inn.demokritos.gr/farewell-to-a-pioneer-of-microelectronics-and-nanotechnology-honoring-michael-hatzakis-who-passed-away/
Ed Wolf
The EIPBN community mourns the loss of Prof. Edward Dean Wolf, who passed away on March 11, 2023, at the age of 87. Prof. Wolf was a pioneer in nanofabrication who joined Cornell in 1978 as the first director of what would become the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF).
An emeritus professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell Engineering, Prof. Wolf is credited with coining the term “biolistic” (biological ballistics), a method for the delivery of nucleic acid to plant cells by high-speed particle bombardment. Together with plant geneticist John Sanford and machinist Nelson Allen, Wolf formed Biolistics Inc., which was sold to DuPont in 1986. In 2015, Wolf was inducted as a fellow into the National Academy of Inventors.
Born May 30, 1935, near Quinter, Kansas, Wolf received a bachelor’s in chemistry in 1957 from McPherson College, and his Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1961 from Iowa State University.
After a post-doc at Princeton, from 1965-78, Wolf worked as a senior scientist at the Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California, where he led a pioneering research and development group in scanning electron beam surface physics. During that time, he was made a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He also served as the 17th EIBPN program chair, together with Tom Everhart as conference chair in 1973.
Prof. Wolf joined Cornell in 1978 as a tenured professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and as the first director of the National Research and Resource Facility for Submicron Structures (NRRFSS), which became the CNF. He oversaw the facility for 10 years and was responsible for designing and staffing Knight Laboratory, the NRRFSS’s state-of-the-art cleanroom.
During a sabbatical in 1986-87, Wolf was a visiting fellow commoner at Trinity College, a visiting professor in the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University, and a guest professor at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria.
A beloved teacher and mentor, Prof. Wolf would often invite graduate students to holiday dinners when they were unable to travel home. And his “Club Ed” home on the west shore of Cayuga Lake, which featured nationally recognized dwarf conifer gardens, was always a gathering spot for family and friends.
Prof. Wolf is survived by his wife of 67 years, Marlene Kay (Simpson) Wolf, as well as three daughters, nine grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. He will be dearly missed by many in the EIPBN community.
