Robert Vajtai is a Faculty Fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science at Rice University, Houston, USA. His scientific interests cover synthesis, processing, and characterization of physical and chemical properties of new material forms and structures, mainly nanostructured materials, nanocomposites and nanomaterials; as well as applications of these materials in thermal management, energy storage, MEMS, and electronic devices. He received his MS degree in Physics and his Doctor's degree in Solid-State Physics from the University of Szeged, Hungary, in 1986 and 1997, respectively. From 1987 to 2002 he was a Faculty Member of the Experimental Physics Department of Szeged University, Hungary. He also spent sabbatical time as a Fellow of the Swedish Institute in The Angstrom Laboratory in Uppsala, Sweden, from 1998 to 1999; as an Eotvos Fellow at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland from 1995 to 1996 and he also visited the Max Planck Institute in Gottingen, Germany in 1993 via a Max Planck Fellowship. He was rewarded by the Bolyai Fellowship of the Hungarian Scientific Academy for 1999-2000. Before joining Rice University, Dr. Vajtai spent eight years at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he was a Laboratory Manager at the Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center managing the nanoparticle generation by inert-gas deposition and the carbon nanotechnology laboratories. Dr. Vajtai is on the Editorial Board of the journals Nanopages and Fluctuations and Noise Letters.
