Honoring the Retirement of Professor Gary Rubloff

This Special Collection honors the iconic career of Professor Gary Rubloff and his lasting impact on semiconductor science, surface chemistry, and thin-film materials. Throughout his career, Prof. Rubloff has pioneered the use of standard semiconductor equipment, surface-science principles, and thin-film nanomaterials to enable next-generation processing technologies and applications spanning semiconductor manufacturing, biomaterials, and vapor-phase thin-film synthesis. His work has culminated in recent advances in thin-film ionic materials, helping define new directions at the intersection of electrochemistry and microelectronics. The collection highlights the historical and scientific connections between seemingly disparate research areas that are unified through Prof. Rubloff’s ingenuity, leadership, and influence.

Contributions will span fundamental thin-film synthesis and processes that leverage established semiconductor design rules and toolsets toward emerging applications in biological, ceramic, ionic material systems, and iontronic devices. This collection is intended for scientists and professionals across academia, industry, and government research, and aims to illustrate how semiconductor-based methodologies can serve as a unifying platform for innovation across diverse materials and device technologies.

Topics covered include, but are not limited to:

Guest Editors

Alexander C. Kozen, Department of Physics, University of Vermont

Keith Gregorczyk, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park

Parag Banerjee, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Central Florida

Manuscript Details & Submission