Joseph Poon

Who is 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. 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.