Scott Hannahs, Ph.D Director of DC Facilities and Instrumentation, National High Magnetic Field Lab

Professional Experience

Director of DC Facilities and Instrumentation,
National High Magnetic Field Lab, Tallahassee, FL
March 2008 - present

• Planning and implementing improvements to the DC magnet
  systems and general purpose research instrumentation while working with
  specialists to maintain and develop existing and new special purpose
  instruments. Budget administration for each major facility and
  instrumentation area, supervising electronic and mechanical instrument
  shops, and pursuing a personal research program.
• Negotiating the responsibilities and duties of Experimental Scholar/
  Scientists to ensure that major facilities and instrumentation areas
  are maintained and enhanced, such as general purpose instrumentation,
  low temperature (<1 K) refrigerators and related equipment, optics
  facilities, infrared spectrometers, sources, and detectors, and other
  resources as needed.
• Representing the DC Facility as an ex officio member of the User
  Collaboration Grant review committee requires working with other NHMFL
  groups on major new projects. This includes attending planning and design
  review meetings of major facilities and magnets (the Free Electron
  Laser and Series Connected Hybrid, for example). The DC Facilities
  and Instrumentation Group provides technician support to other MagLab
  groups based upon its needs to support users and improve facilities.

Head of User Instrumentation
National High Magnetic Field Lab, Tallahassee, FL
September 1993 - March 2008

Responsible for heading group of instrumentation physicists to support Users at the NHMFL. Developed cutting edge cryogenic and electronic instrumentation and made available to users. Evaluated user proposals for scheduling magnet time. Designed, modified and automated major power and magnet systems for optimimum safety and performance. Conducted research in high temperature superconductors, quantum hall and correlated electon systems.

Instrumentation Physicist
Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory, MIT, Cambridge, IL
October 1989- August 1993

• Responsible for general instrumentation at the laboratory, assisted in general experiment design and laboratory management. Conducted research in magneto-transport of the organic superconducting systems, (TMTSF)2PF6 and and (BEDT-TTF)2 Cu(NCS)2.
  

Consultant
Dept. of Physics, Boston University
October 1989-February 1990

• Investigated conductivity mechanisms in conducting LangmuirBlodgett films. Investigated electronic and biological systems with scanning tunneling microscope.

Assistant Professor/Visiting Scholar
Boston University, Boston, MA/Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory, MIT, Cambridge, MA
September 1988-September 1989

• Lectured physics courses at the lower and upper division under graduate level. Conducting a program of research in low temperature condensed matter physics including the supervision of undergraduate and graduate students. Used scanning tunneling microscope to study cellular structures and organic superconductors.

Postdoctoral Researcher
Boston University, Boston MA / Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory, MIT, Cambridge, MA
September 1987-September 1988

• Designed and constructed a scanning tunneling microscope to be used for low temperature magnetic field measurements of novel superconducting systems. Conducted low temperature studies of the organic superconductor (TMTSF)2PF6 at high hydrostatic pressures to characterize the high magnetic field states.

Research Assistant
UCLA Dept. of Physics / Low Temperature Lab
September 1982-September 1987

• Designed, constructed and conducted experiments on the surface mobility of ions in liquid helium at temperatures to 0.015K. Determined the interaction of the ions with ripplon (quantized surface) states. Investigated strong non-linear behavior of the ion mobility.

Teaching Associate
UCLA Department of Physics
September 1978-June 1982
September 1975-June 1977

• Responsible for assisting in all phases of undergraduate and graduate level physics education. Participated in the reorganization of the undergraduate curriculum. Teaching duties included preparation of materials, demonstrations, preparation of examinations, and conducting discussion and laboratory sections.

Staff Researcher
M.I.T. Department of Earth and Space Sciences
September 1977-April 1978
September 1974-August 1975

• Determined elasticity and density models of lunar interior using seismological data from Apollo missions. Calculation of tidal stresses due to Earth-Moon-Sun system for a realistic model of the Earth. Designed and completed statistical correlation studies of triggering of earthquakes to components of the tidal stress tensor for the San Andreas and North Anatolian fault zones.
  

Technical Skills

• Management of Experimental User Support Research Group
• High magnetic field measurements
• Real time computer data acquisition and control, Process control,
  networking and system managemement
• Numerical simulation
• DC transport and magneto-transport measurements
• Heat capacity measurements
• Cryogenics – Design and operation of 3 He, 4He, Dilution refrigeration,
  Thermometry, Temperature control
• Ultra Low noise electronics
• Nano-positioning
• Computer image rendering
• Digital signal processing and filtering
  

Education

• University of California, Los Angeles, California Ph.D., Physics(Thesis: “Study of Two-Dimensional Ion Resonances Under the Surface of Liquid Helium”, Advisor: Prof. Gary A. Williams),1987
• University of California, Los Angeles, California, M.S., Physics, 1976
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Physics(Thesis: “Investigation of Small Oscillations for the Bag Model of Hadrons”, Advisor: Prof. Jaffe), specialization in applied mathematics, 1975
  

Professional Societies

• Member American Physical Society
• Executive Commitee, APS Instrumentaion and Measurement
• Science Topical Group 1998-2003 Member APS Magnetism and Applications Topical Group
  

Honors

• R&D 100 Award 2005, with Keithley Instruments LabVIEW Champion