David Surman

David Surman has been a long-standing member of the AVS. In 2009, Dave accepted the position as the Chair of the Exhibitor & Manufacturers Committee. In 2011, he was elected to the AVS Board of Directors where he served a two-year term from 2012-2013. During his term on the AVS Board of Directors, he served as Chair of the Membership Committee, a position he held until 2019. While in this position, he was instrumental in developing and introducing a new membership category, (Technical Specialist), to provide additional opportunities for people to become members and grow the Society. Additionally he remains focused on enhancing industrial participation within the Society and the Symposium.

Dave was elected as President of AVS for 2016, and completed his term as Past President in 2017. Dave also served on the Advanced Surface Engineering Division Executive Committee from 2017 – 2018. He has also served on the Board of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) from 2016 – 2017 and was the Chair of their Board of Directors during 2017, during which time he oversaw several key initiatives for the AIP Federation. In 2020 he was made an AVS Fellow in recognition of his service to AVS and his accomplishments within the scientific community. Dave was elected as AVS Clerk for 2020 while continuing to assist other AVS committees with their efforts to improve and expand such as the History Committee, the Professional Leadership Committee, and the Industrial Advisory Board that is focused on enhancing the value of the Society to its industrial membership. He also works closely with the Symposium & Conferences Committee providing input to enhance attendance. During Dave’s time as an AVS volunteer, he has truly come to appreciate the many new relationships he has made within the AVS community and appreciates the opportunities that AVS has provided him.

Dave recently retired as President of Kratos Analytical Inc. and as a Director of its parent company, Kratos Analytical Group PLC located in Manchester, UK, although he remains active with their sales and marketing team. The company focuses on the development of Surface Analysis instrumentation, with an emphasis on X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and related techniques.

He received his B.Sc. in chemistry from the University of Bath (UK) in 1975 and was awarded his Ph.D. in chemistry from the same University in 1978. From 1979 –1981, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology working with Professor John Vickerman on the development of Fast Atom Bombardment techniques for both surface science and mass spectrometry applications and published some of the earliest work in this area.