Dr. Ralph Oliver Simmons is a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
URBANA, IL, January 21, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Dr. Ralph Oliver Simmons with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Dr. Simmons celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Having distinguished himself as a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since 1995, Dr. Simmons joined the faculty in 1959 as an assistant professor in the department of physics. He later became a full professor in 1965 and the department head between 1970 and 1986. While overseeing the physics department, Dr. Simmons successfully recruited over 40 faculty members and the department produced over 30 Ph.D.s annually during that period.
Dr. Simmons was responsible for attaining top 10 status in the department, as well as ranking number one in condensed matter physics research. He likewise began the expansion of faculty staff in the field of biomolecular physics, and built strong ties with the department of astronomy, which included joint faculty appointments, additional astrophysical research and the relocation of that department in proximity to physics. Dr. Simmons contributed for over a decade, chairing a university committee which aided in the establishment of a department of atmospheric sciences where he oversaw its programs.
Dr. Simmons' role as the head of the physics department concluded in 1986. Following this, he returned to the classroom in 1986, and continued with the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory on campus as a founding member. Dr. Simmons also played an instrumental role in the development of a supercomputing center, which resulted in the formation of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
During Dr. Simmons' tenure at the University of Illinois, he established a research group to study properties of condensed gases. His notably conducted research on noble gases where thermodynamic properties in the crystalline state had been limited to calorimetric and crude elastic studies. He pioneered the direct measurement of atomic momentum distributions in crystals of helium, neon, argon, molecular hydrogen and other molecular solids and proved that that self-diffusion in the close-packed metals proceeds by atomic vacancies. The Simmons-Balluffi method became a textbook example as the direct and unambiguous way to determine the net vacancy content in crystals. Furthermore, Dr. Simmons' success in experimental physics included the development of new techniques in cryogenics and in imaginative x-ray instrument design.
Dr. Simmons was a guest professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, CNRS-Ecole Normale Superieure and CNRS-Centre de Recherches sur les Tres Basses Temperatures and a guest researcher at Studiecentrum voor Kernenergie-Centre D'Etude de l'Energie Nucleaire. Among other roles, he provided his expertise as a consultant to the Argonne
National Laboratory, the chairman in the office of physical sciences of the National Research Council and a trustee of Argonne Universities Association. During the 1970s and 1980s, Dr. Simmons was active on the editorial board of Physical Review B and the international advisory board of the Journal of Physics C, Solid State Physics. He also authored and co-authored multiple articles in various scientific journals.
An alumnus of the University of Kansas, Dr. Simmons received a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics in 1950. As a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, he completed a second Bachelor of Arts in physics in 1953. Four years later, he earned a Doctor of Philosophy in physics at the University of Illinois. Dr. Simmons is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society. He is a member of several other professional organizations, including the American Crystallographic Association and the American Association for Physics Teachers.
Renowned for his work, Dr. Simmons received an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Senior US Scientist Award in 1992, followed by a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Illinois in the college of engineering in 2007. A celebrated Marquis listee, he has been included in several editions of Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the Midwest. Dr. Simmons married Janet Lee Lull in 1952, and together they are the proud parents of four children, through whom they have five grandchildren.
About Marquis Who's Who®
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
# # #