Theodore E. Madey (October 24, 1937 – July 27, 2008) was an American condensed matter physicist who specialized in the chemistry and physics of surfaces. He was a professor in the physics and chemistry departments at Rutgers University at the time of his death.
Early life and education
Theodore Eugene Madey was born in Wilmington, DE, and was raised in Baltimore, MD. He was the descendant of Polish American immigrants who were amongst a wave of immigrants that fled instability and famine in Poland at the turn of the century. His grandparents and parents lived in Delaware’s New Castle County at the time of his birth, where his Polish-born grandfather worked for a shipbuilding company. At a young age, his family relocated to Baltimore, MD where he was raised, and attended Loyola Blakefield High School. He majored in physics at Loyola College, also in Baltimore, and completed a B.S. in 1959. In the summer following his graduation he was hired by one his college professors, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, to work in a physics laboratory with vacuum materials. Madey went on to attend graduate school in physics at the University of Notre Dame and continued to work in the field of vacuum science. He completed his Ph.D. in physics in the experimental condensed matter group of Edward Coomes in 1963.
Career
Madey's first appointment after graduation was at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), as a National Research Council post-doctoral fellow. He was hired permanently, and remained there for 25 years, becoming the leader of the Surface Science and Kinetics group. While employed at NBS, he developed a close working relationship with John T. Yates, Jr., with whom he would go on to co-author more than 60 publications, and was jointly awarded the 1978 Samuel Wesley Stratton Award. In 1988, he relocated to New Jersey, where he was appointed as the State of New Jersey Professor of Surface Science at Rutgers University, and mentored dozens of students and post-doctoral research associates. He remained in this position until his death in 2008. While at Rutgers, he hosted one of his former post-doctoral research associates, Ulrike Diebold, and her research group into his own research laboratory when Diebold's group was forced to temporarily evacuate in 2005 from Tulane University in New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina.
Madey served on a number of scientific editorial boards, and also held a variety of elected and appointed leadership roles in the AVS., including President (2001). He was also extensively involved with international outreach and served as the President (1992-1995), and Secretary-General (1986-1989) of the International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique and Applications (IUVSTA).
Research
Madey's research activities fell into three areas:
"Surface structure, electronic properties, and reactivity of bimetallic surfaces by atomic-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy, electron diffraction, and synchrotron radiation. Mechanisms of electron - and photon-stimulated desorption of atoms and ions from surfaces (including charge transfer and energy transfer phenomena) using unique apparatus that permits angle-resolved ion detection. Nucleation, growth, epitaxial structure and interfacial reactivity of ultrathin metal films on oxide surfaces and on polymer surfaces using electron and ion spectroscopies, coupled with high resolution (sub-nanometer) electron microscopy."