Paul McIntyre | Faculty Spotlight
Paul McIntyre
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and of Photon Science and Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy
“I wanted to use the tools and ideas of the physical sciences for practical purposes. That made engineering the field for me.”
Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and grew up East of that city, in what was then farm country in the Fraser Valley. For part of my childhood, we lived on an old farm in a sparsely settled community called Sumas Mountain. There were forty head of free-range beef cattle on the farm, several horses, a hen house, orchards and a large vegetable garden, and there was a trout stream running through the property.
What led you to the engineering field?
I chose engineering for my profession because I was attracted to physics, chemistry and mathematics and how they could contribute to a quantitative understanding of the world. Perhaps because of time spent living and working on farms, I also had a very practical bent. I wanted to use the tools and ideas of the physical sciences for practical purposes. That made engineering the field for me.
Where did you study?
I pursued undergraduate studies in metallurgy and materials engineering at the University of British Columbia, and then I moved to the U.S. for graduate school, earning a doctorate at MIT. At MIT, I worked in the laboratory of Professor Michael Cima in the Materials Science and Engineering department. I helped to develop a chemical solution deposition method for synthesizing large-area thin films of a high temperature superconductor, yttrium barium copper oxide. On appropriate substrates, these films would exhibit epitaxial growth during post-deposition annealing. The resulting, highly crystalline, material could support very large critical current densities. My thesis project focused on understanding the crystal growth mechanism - it turned out to be a form of liquid phase epitaxy - and the nature of the defects that promoted flux vortex pinning in the crystallized films, which contributed to their interesting superconducting properties.
What led you to Stanford and your current role?
After MIT, I was a postdoctoral fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory, studying ion-solid interactions and interfaces between dissimilar materials. I then spent about 18 months performing research as a member of the technical staff in the Central Research Labs of Texas Instruments (TI), in Dallas. That’s where I was introduced to ferroelectric materials, which became a major interest of mine thereafter, and I also got a good introduction to silicon integrated circuit fabrication, devices and materials. In early 1997, I moved to a new “Farm” as an Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). That’s how I came to Stanford, but what has kept me here for almost thirty years is the opportunity to work with so many talented students, postdocs and faculty colleagues.
During my first year at Stanford, I had a lunch meeting with Professor Arthur (Artie) Bienenstock. Artie had been Director of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) at SLAC earlier in his career, and he was still in the habit of encouraging new professors to learn about the X-ray measurement capabilities at SSRL. Prompted by that meeting and others we subsequently had with SSRL staff, members of my research group and I began applying for beam time for experiments at SSRL and became users of that facility. Two decades later, I was nearing the end of my term as Department Chair of MSE, when it transpired that the SSRL directorship became vacant. This seemed like a unique opportunity to contribute to research beyond my own field and to lead a much larger scientific organization than I had previously done. I threw my hat in the ring, so to speak, and was selected as SSRL Director. I have served in this role for six years now.
Please describe any of your current research you would like highlighted and describe its importance, and/or any research you hope to accomplish in the future.
Inspired to a large degree by things I learned at TI, most of the work my group members and I have done at Stanford has focused on creating and studying new materials that can be integrated with silicon. A major theme in the group now is energy-efficient microelectronics, in which we try to minimize energy wasted in shuttling data across and between silicon chips. This includes 1) discovering and optimizing new semiconductors and memory materials that can be synthesized at low temperatures to vertically interleave logic and memory “fabrics” on top of silicon, 2) creating silicon-compatible light sources for facile chip-to-chip and chip-to-cloud communication, and 3) designing new materials that enable combined memory and logic functionality in the same device. I lead a new Department of Energy funded Microelectronics Science Research Center project, in which twelve other investigators and I pursue research on ideas such as these. There’s a recent news story describing this project and related efforts: https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/news/2025-01-06-slac-will-play-key-role-does-new-research-centers-advancing-next-generation
I am excited by all the research we’re pursuing in the group today. However, one activity that seems likely to grow in importance over time is inventing new methods to control structural order over widely varying length scales during low temperature synthesis of semiconductors and ferroic materials, to tune their properties in novel ways. The X-ray capabilities at SSRL and other synchrotrons are well-suited for characterizing structural order across length scales, so there’s a nice synergy between our group’s research and what I learn through daily contact with SSRL’s photon science experts.
What advice do you have for aspiring scientist researchers in the field?
Don’t hesitate to jump into the unknown, especially when it feels right. If it doesn't work out, you can and should jump back.
Only pursue opportunities that truly interest you.
A related point: To become a top researcher in any field of science or engineering, it’s essential to develop a deep expertise in that field, while you pursue your research energetically. This requires a lot of work, especially early on, in the form of extensive background reading, taking technical courses not required for one’s degree, attending short courses at conferences, etc. If you’re truly interested in your research topic, this necessary, “deep-dive”, learning won’t seem like a chore. If it does seem like a chore, then you should consider doing something else with your life.
Go to talks and seminars, even ones that may not be directly in-line with your current research, and ask questions. Always read the scientific literature in your field, but with a healthy dose of skepticism.
