Joseph Poon

Joseph Poon is William Barton Rogers Professor of Physics at the University of Virginia. He is famous for cross-disciplinary research applying physics principles to design, synthesize, and investigate amorphous metals, nano-structured materials, and intermetallic compounds. For his advances in research on Amorphous metal, he was cited in the Scientific American 50 leaders in 2004 ^[1]. He also was elected Fellow in the American Physical Society.

Poon received his education at the California Institute of Technology, where he got a B.S. and Ph.D. degree in Applied physics.

He has acquired multi-million dollars grants from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for the potentially revolutionary applications of amorphous metals in defense industry,

The term "cross-disciplinary research" had a storybook meaning for Poon and Materials Science Professor Gary Shiflet who was also cited in the Scientific American 50 leaders. When they first met in 1985, they merely had a common interest in "quasi crystals," materials that have an unusual atomic structure. It turned out that Shiflet was holding on to a library textbook on phase transformation, which Poon needed for his teaching reference. They resolved the situation through collaboration, an approach they have continued ever since.

1. ^ "The Scientific American 50 Award". Scientific American. December 2004. p. 44.