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

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

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 mul ...

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

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.

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 th ...

(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 o ...

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 t ...

degrees in Materials Science and

Engineering Engineering is the use of 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 range of more speciali ...

in 1974 followed by a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

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 Electrical mobility is the ability of charged particles (such as electrons or protons) to move through a medium in response to an electric field that is pulling them. The separation of ions according to their mobility in gas phase is called ion ...

of ions in fast ion conductors.

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 physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the 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. Although humans are ...

'' 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 ...

''. These papers have been cited over 30,000 times, including his seminal work on Ba₂YCu₃O_9−δ ( YBCO), 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 Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its mot ...

. 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 previou ...

. In 1996 Cava received the

Bernd T. Matthias Prize The Bernd Theodor Matthias Prize is a science award for innovative contributions to the material aspects of superconductivity. Summary Bernd Theodor Matthias Prize is presented since 1989 by the Bell Labs, created by friends and colleagues of prof. ...

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. Cava also won the 2021 David Adler Lectureship Award in 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 Gdańsk University of Technology 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 ...

, dedicated supporter of the

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

, 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