The Forum of Chalcogeniders congratulates the great scientist and technologist Stanford R. Ovshinsky on the occasion of his 82-aniversary.
    Stan Ovshinsky has pioneered a new branch of materials science: the amorphous semiconductor science, and laid the ground for a number of very important and rapidly expanding technologies.
    Stanford R. Ovshinsky, President and Chief Executive Officer, Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (USA), founded ECD in 1960 with his wife, Dr. Iris M. Ovshinsky, to continue his work in amorphous and disordered materials which he began in 1955. His fundamental and basic contributions established the field, resulting in transforming the old approaches to glasses to one of unexpected new physical, chemical and electronic mechanisms. Periodicity, then the basis of solid state physics, now had an amorphous twin where disorder was a positive factor, offering new degrees of freedom in his inventions. These inventions have become the enabling technology in four major areas: energy generation, including photovoltaics and fuel cells; energy storage, including Ovonic nickel metalhydride consumer and electric and hybrid vehicle batteries and solid hydrogen storage; information systems, including amorphous semiconductors, switching and phase-change memories, both optical and electrical; and, atomically designed synthetic materials for a wide variety of uses.
    The results of Stan Ovshinsky's pioneering work materialized in more than 250 scientific papers and over 300 patents are all around us and part of our daily life: the optical scanners in the fax machine, the flat panel displays of our Laptop as well as the optical memory and digital video discs, large area X-ray sensor arrays for medical imaging, the xerographic drum in duplicating machines manufactured by Canon corporation and, of course, solar panels and solar roof shingles.
    Stan Ovshinsky is a fellow of both American Physical Society "for his contributions to the understanding, applications and development of amorphous electronic materials and devices" and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is recipient of the Karl W. Boer Solar Energy Medal of Merit, the International Association for Hydrogen Energy Sir William Grove Award. He was named, along with his wife, Dr. Iris M. Ovshinsky, as heroes of Chemistry 2000 by the American Chemical Society for "advances in electrochemical, energy storage and energy generation, including the development of Ovonic nickel metal hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries, regenerative fuel cells, solid hydrogen storage system, and amorphous silicon photovoltaics" and for having "made significant and lasting contributions to global human welfare".
    Stan received in 1968 the Diesel Gold Medal presented by German Inventors Association in recognition of his discovery of the semiconductor switching effect in disordered and amorphous materials. His pioneering work on switching in amorphous semiconductors published in Physical Review Letters, vol. 21, pages 1450-1453, 1968 is the most cited paper in the amorphous field.

Mihai A. POPESCU