Guide to the Barbara Hope Cooper Papers,
1969-1999

Barbara Hope Cooper, 1953-1999, Cornell Class of 1976, graduated Magna Cum Laude in Physics and with Distinction in all Subjects, with a B.A. degree in Physics; then attended graduate school at the California Institute of Technology until June 1982 when she received a Ph.D. in Physics. She returned to Cornell as an Assistant Professor of Physics in 1983, became an Associate Professor of Physics at Cornell in 1989, and a full Professor in 1995.

Her main research interests as an experimental physicist and a leader in surface science were:

1) the use of low-energy ion beams to probe particle-surface interactions and the structural and electronic features of clean and adsorbate-covered metal surfaces,

2) atomic-scale scanning tunneling microscopy studies of mass transport and stability of nanoscale structures on ion-bombarded metal surfaces,

3) in situ studies of surface roughening during bombardment using synchrotron x-rays.

She guided a dozen students through their doctorates at Cornell.

She worked for Bell Laboratories, Kellogg Radiation Laboratory at Cal Tech, and Cornell University. She was awarded an Avon Scholarship, 1971-1976; a Bell Laboratories Graduate Research Program for Women Grant, 1976-1981; a Presidential Young Investigator Award, 1985-1989, an IBM Faculty Development Award, 1985 and 1986; and the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award of the American Physical Society, 1992. She was a member of the American Vacuum Society, Sigma Xi, Bohemian Physical Society and a fellow of the American Physical Society.

The collection includes correspondence, notes, calculations, materials for talks, data collection information, publication drafts and reprints, and course materials from student years as well as outlines, exams, and lab manuals used in teaching.