ASTM International Committee E42 on Surface Analysis has presented the Award of Merit to Donald Baer, Ph.D., laboratory fellow and lead scientist for energy and materials processes in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, Washington. 

The Award of Merit is ASTM’s highest organizational recognition for individual contributions to standards activities. Baer was recognized for his 34 years of exceptional service to Committee E42 and his innovative contributions to the development of standards and information resources for surface analysis.

Baer is a past chairman and vice chairman of E42 and currently serves as the committee’s membership secretary. He is an active member of several E42 subcommittees, including the U.S. Technical Advisory Group for ISO/TC 201 on Surface Chemical Analysis (E42.92). Baer is the principal architect of a joint website for ASTM and EMSL that provides access to a range of resources and tools that improve the quality of surface analysis.

A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he received a bachelor’s degree in physics, Baer earned his Ph.D. in experimental solid-state physics from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Since joining PNNL in 1976, Baer has specialized in the use of surface-sensitive techniques to study surface and interphase reactions and material surface chemistry. He has served as a technical leader in the Interface Chemistry and Engineering (IC&E) Group of the Chemical Sciences Division of the Fundamental Sciences Directorate; as deputy manager of PNNL’s Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Initiative; and as co-director of the PNNL-University of Washington Joint Institute for Nanoscience. He is also an affiliate professor of chemistry at the University of Washington.

In addition to ASTM International, Baer is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Vacuum Society, and a member of the American Physical Society, the Electrochemical Society, the Geochemical Society and the International Organization for Standardization. He has been recognized with several industry awards, including the DOE Division of Materials Sciences Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment Award, PNNL’s Chester Cooper Mentor of the Year Award and the American Vacuum Society Alber Nerken Award. A frequent invited lecturer, Baer has authored or co-authored more than 260 scientific journal publications, and edited three books and four special journal issues.

ASTM PR Contact: Erin K. Brennan, Phone: 610-832-9602; ebrennan@astm.org

Release #9620