About

Dr. William Ratcliff II was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His research career began in high school with internships at the University of Michigan in space physics, chemistry, and nonlinear optics. He attended the University of Michigan for his undergraduate degree and did research there in cosmology and nonlinear optics, as well as interning at Bell Labs. After obtaining his Bachelors in Science and Engineering, he attended graduate school at Rutgers, working in the group of Professor Sang Wook Cheong on CMR manganites, dilute magnetic semiconductors, and frustrated magnets. After finishing his doctorate, he went to the NIST Center for Neutron Research in Gaithersburg, Maryland for a National Research Council Postdoc working with Dr. Seunghun Lee on frustrated magnets and multiferroic materials. Afterwards, he joined the staff and has been at NIST for 18 years. Dr. Ratcliff has coauthored over 80 papers whose total citations exceed 5000, given several invited talks at international conferences, and organized workshops on magnetic structure determination. He is the winner of the NIST Bronze Medal, the highest honorary recognition given by the institute. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and an Associate Editor for Science Advances. His current research focus is on topological materials, multiferroic materials, and applications of AI to neutron scattering.