Miguel José Yacamán

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Miguel José Yacamán (born in 1946 in Córdoba, Veracruz) is a Mexican physicist who has made many contributions to the field of nanotechnology. He earned his Ph.D in physics in 1972 from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where he was later director of the Institute of Physics from 1983-1991. He is currently a professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

1 Research
2 Honors and distinctions
3 Controversies
4 Courses
5 External links

[edit] Research

Dr. Yacaman has done research on the structure and properties of nanoparticles, including metals, semiconductors and magnetic materials. He has also worked on synthesis and characterization of new materials (most of them nanoparticles), surfaces and interfaces, defects in solids, electron diffraction and imagining theory, quasicrystals, archaeological materials, catalysis and physics and chemistry of asphaltenes.

Dr. Yacaman is the author of 9 books and over 200 technical papers on the field, with more than 2000 citations. He is an associate editor of Acta and Scripta Metallurgica, Catalysis Letters, Journal of Nanostructured Materials, Microscopy Research and Techniques and Materials Chemistry, among others.

[edit] Honors and distinctions

Dr. Yacaman has held the Guggenheim Fellowship, and was awarded numerous prizes such as the National Prize of Sciences of Mexico, and the Prize of the National Academy of Mexico in Exact Sciences. He is a member of the Mexican National Research System (level III), and in May 2003 he was appointed National Researcher of Excellence by CONACyT.

[edit] Controversies

Dr. Yacaman has been at the center of several public controversies. Among them, he was arguably vetoed as a potential candidate for becoming rector of the UNAM by a group of notable academics due to his perceived radical conservative politics as evidenced when he confronted a student strike in 1988.

[edit] Courses

Dr. Yacaman gave a Materials test on November 30, 2006. Consensus shows that this third test was more difficult than the previous two. Sources also indicate that he resents his students for having poor lecture attendance. This is widely believed to be the cause of the increase in exam difficulty.