Recently, Prof. Kenneth A. Jackson, a world famous scientist on crystal growth and kinetic theory, is now paying a visit on invitation to the State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials. Prof. Jackson’s visit will last for a month, and he will give a series of lectures containing 18 reports about crystal growth theory. The first lecture was“Kinetic Processes: Crystal Growth, Diffusion, and Phase Transformations”.

In the first lecture, Prof. Jackson gave an introduction to Kinetic Processes, and details about Arrhenius Plot, Thermodynamics, Boltzmann’s Law and Diffusion. After the lecture, Prof. Jackson enthusiastically answered questions of the crystal growth theory and helped students resolve problems met in growing crystals, from the perspective of theoretical analysis. Students and teachers from the Institute of Crystal Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and School of Material Science and Engineering attended the lecture.

Kenneth A. Jackson, member of the United States National Academy of Engineering, is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Arizona in Tucson, USA. He served as President for both the American Association for Crystal Growth (AACG) and the Materials Research Society (MRS). After receiving his PhD degree from Harvard University and becoming an assistant Professor there, he joined AT&T Bell Laboratories as head of the Materials Physics Research Group. His major scientific interests are the kinetic processes of crystal growth, his scientific contributions including constitutional supercooling, the surface roughening transition, defect formation in crystals, and studies of alloy crystallization. He also pioneered in computer simulation studies of the atomic scale processes during crystal growth.

He has rationalized the crystallization behavior of inorganic and organic compounds in terms of dimensionless entropy of melting, ΔSm/R, which is used as a scale for the ease of crystallization. Also related to ΔSm/R is the "alpha factor of Jackson" that determines the surface roughening of growth fronts. His book entitled Kinetic Processes: Crystal Growth, Diffusion, and Phase Transformations in Materials is widely used within the crystal growth community.

The invitation is under the support of "111" Program, the Program of Introducing Talents of Disciplines to Universities in China, jointly organized by the Ministry of Education and State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.

Source: the State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials