Skip to main content

About Rick Ubic

Prof. Ubic’s background is in Materials Science. He obtained both his Bachelors (1993) and Masters (1994) degrees in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University.  He earned his PhD (1998) from the University of Sheffield, England where he stayed on for two subsequent years as a post-doctoral research associate.  He arrived as a lecturer (assistant professor) at Queen Mary, University of London at the end of 1999 and was promoted to senior lecturer (associate professor) in 2005.  In 2007 he moved to Boise State University where he is now a professor in the Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering. He has served as the Director of the Boise State Center for Materials Characterization (BSCMC) since 2012 and Director of the REU Site in Materials for Society since 2014.

He has received several awards, including the 1998 Berthold Eichler Memorial Prize from G.R. Stein Refractories Ltd., the American Ceramic Society’s (ACerS) 2003 Edward C. Henry Best Paper Award for his high-resolution TEM work on defect pyrochlores, the ACerS 2004 Robert L. Coble Award for Young Scholars for his “contributions relating crystallography to the behavior of dielectric properties in complex compounds,” and the 2006 Edgar Andrews Best Journal Article Prize for his work on the structure of a perovskite superlattice. In 2017 he was the recipient of Boise State’s highest honor for research, the Foundation Scholar Award.

Prof. Ubic is a member of the Electron Microscopy and Analysis Group of the Institute of Physics. He is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society and served the Society as past chair (2018-19) of the Electronics Division and member of the Publications Committee (2017-2021). He has been Editor-in-Chief of Materials Research Bulletin since 2014. He has co-organized symposia at the MS&T conference series since 2010 and at PacRim since 2011. In 2014 he hosted the 8th International Conference on Microwave Materials & their Applications (MMA 2014) and remains an active member of the international advisory board of this conference series.

His work mainly involves structural characterization of graphite and electroceramics; structure-property relationships; hybrid perovskite photovoltaics; and correlative modeling of perovskites, including the effect of vacancies, ordering, and noncubic distortions.

Positions

2014 - Present Director, Boise State University ‐ Research Experience for Undergraduates Site in Materials for Society
to
2012 - Present Director, Boise State Center for Materials Characterization, Boise State University
to
Present Professor, Boise State University ‐ Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering
to
Associate Professor, Boise State University ‐ Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering
to

Curriculum Vitae

Disciplines

Research Interests

Grants

2020 - Present Project to conduct exploratory research into room-temperature fabrication of electroceramics
National Science Foundation
$297,000
$
to
Enter a valid date range.

Professional Service and Affiliations

2014 - Present Editor-in-Chief, Materials Research Bulletin
Present Fellow, American Ceramic Society
Present Member, Electron Microscopy and Analysis Group
Present Member of the international advisory board, International Conference on Microwave Materials and Their Applications (MMA)
2017 - 2021 Member of the Publications Committee, American Ceramic Society
2018 - 2019 Chair of the Electronics Division, American Ceramic Society
to
Enter a valid date range.

Honors and Awards

  • 1998 - Berthold Eichler Memorial Prize, G.R. Stein Refractories Ltd.
  • 2003 - Edward C. Henry Best Paper Award for high-resolution TEM work on defect pyrochlores - American Ceramic Society
  • 2004 - Robert L. Coble Award for Young Scholars for "contributions relating crystallography to the behavior of dielectric properties in complex compounds", American Ceramic Society
  • 2006 - Edgar Andrews Best Journal Article Prize for work on the structure of a perovskite superlattice
  • 2008-2011 - National Academy of Sciences Grant ($254,000)
  • 2009-2012 - Department of Energy Grant ($785,396)
  • 2010-2014 - National Science Foundation Grant ($628,711)
  • 2017 - Foundation Scholar Award ($3,000 honorarium), Boise State University

Courses

  • MSE 305: Bonding, Crystallography, and Crystal Defects
  • MSE 522: Advanced Transmission Electron Microscopy

Education

to
2002 Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, Queen Mary, University of London
to
1998 - 1999 Post-Doctoral Research Associate, University of Sheffield ‐ Sorby Centre for Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis
to
1998 Ph.D. - Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield
to
1994 M.S. - Materials Science and Engineering, Case Western Reserve University
to
1993 B.S. - Materials Science and Engineering, Case Western Reserve University
to

Links

Contact Information

E-mail: RickUbic@BoiseState.edu

ORCID

Articles (82)