Robert Joseph Cava (born 1951) is a solid-state chemist at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

where he holds the title Russell Wellman Moore Professor of Chemistry. Previously, Professor Cava worked as a staff scientist at

Bell labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

from 1979–1996, where earned the title of Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff. his research investigates

topological insulators A topological insulator is a material whose interior behaves as an electrical insulator while its surface behaves as an electrical conductor, meaning that electrons can only move along the surface of the material. A topological insulator is an ...

semimetal A semimetal is a material with a very small overlap between the bottom of the conduction band and the top of the valence band. According to electronic band theory, solids can be classified as insulators, semiconductors, semimetals, or metals ...

s, superconductors, frustrated magnets and

thermoelectrics Thermoelectric materials show the thermoelectric effect in a strong or convenient form. The ''thermoelectric effect'' refers to phenomena by which either a temperature difference creates an electric potential or an electric current creates a t ...

Education

Cava was educated at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT) where he was awarded

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

and

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

degrees in Materials Science and

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

in 1974 followed by a PhD in

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

s in 1978. His PhD was supervised by Bernhardt J. Wuensch and investigated the electrical mobility of

ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...

s in

fast ion conductor In materials science, fast ion conductors are solid conductors with highly mobile ions. These materials are important in the area of solid state ionics, and are also known as solid electrolytes and superionic conductors. These materials are usef ...

Career and research

In his career, he has published over 500 peer-reviewed papers, 36 of them in ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'' and 8 of them in ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

''. These papers have been cited over 30,000 times, including his seminal work on Ba₂YCu₃O_9−δ (

YBCO Yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) is a family of crystalline chemical compounds that display high-temperature superconductivity; it includes the first material ever discovered to become superconducting above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen ...

), which has been cited almost 1500 times. He holds 15 patents. Cava i Krawczyk2

His former doctoral students include Leslie Schoop.

Honors and awards

In recognition of his contributions, he was elected in 1988 a fellow of the

American Institute of Physics The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...

and a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of American Physic ...

. He was elected in 2001 a

Member of the National Academy of Sciences Membership of the National Academy of Sciences is an award granted to scientists that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of the United States judges to have made “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research”. Membership ...

who specifically acknowledged his mastery of the ternary and quaternary oxides that produced materials possessing

high-temperature superconductivity High-temperature superconductors (abbreviated high-c or HTS) are defined as materials that behave as superconductors at temperatures above , the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. The adjective "high temperature" is only in respect to previ ...

. In 1996 Cava received the Bernd T. Matthias Prize for new superconducting materials. He received in 2011 the

Humboldt Prize The Humboldt Prize, the Humboldt-Forschungspreis in German, also known as the Humboldt Research Award, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of G ...

and in 2012 the

Linus Pauling Award The Linus Pauling Award is an award recognizing outstanding achievement in chemistry. It is awarded annually by thePuget SoundOregon
an

. In 2014 he received a Doctor Honoris Causa degree from the

Gdańsk University of Technology The Gdańsk University of Technology (Gdańsk Tech, former ''GUT''; pl, Politechnika Gdańska) is a technical university in the Wrzeszcz borough of Gdańsk, and one of the oldest universities in Poland. It has eight faculties and with 41 fi ...

. Cava also won the 2021

David Adler Lectureship Award in the Field of Materials Physics The David Adler Lectureship Award in the Field of Materials Physics is a prize that has been awarded annually by the American Physical Society since 1988. The recipient is chosen for "an outstanding contributor to the field of materials physics, ...

. In addition to research, Cava's ability to connect with students while teaching has earned him several teaching awards, including the Fall 2002 Excellence in Teaching Award from

He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2016. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:

Personal life

His biography at the

describes him as a

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * ''The New ...

, dedicated supporter of the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

, passionate astronomer and amateur brewer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cava, Robert Living people 21st-century American chemists MIT School of Engineering alumni Princeton University faculty Scientists at Bell Labs Fellows of the American Physical Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the Royal Society 1951 births Solid state chemists