A rare native Atlanta Walter Henderson, Phys 93, associate director for the Materials Characterization Facility and principal research scientist for the Institute for Matter and Systems, jokes that he grew up in “the Stone Age.” But the work that he does managing 12 research leaders who train more than 800 fellow scientists to do over 40,000 hours of work that contributes nearly $400 million in research funding to Georgia Tech each year? That’s positively “Space Age” in nature.

He also notes that they have a surprising amount of fun on the job. For instance, Henderson smiles, consider that time when fast food giant Arby’s asked the team to create the world’s smallest ad by using technology to etch an advertisement onto a sesame seed back in 2018. “We were approached by an ad agency who wanted to earn a Guinness World Record for the smallest sign on the market,” he chuckles. “We used a focused ion beam to do it. It’s a bit like using a laser to inscribe things, except instead of a light beam, it’s this beam of gallium metal ions that you use to etch into samples such as the seed, which also featured the Arby’s logo.”

The ad was then set up at one of their restaurants with an electronic microscope for viewing, given that it was basically about as wide as a human hair, Henderson notes. The agency also made a follow-on internet commercial. “My claim to fame is that I suited up in a bunny suit for them to shoot the video, and some footage in the clean room itself,” he says. “But the actual work was done in our basement-floor Microanalysis lab in the Marcus Nanotechnology Building. In any event, you can still find the ad on YouTube. I just wish I’d had a better agent: I didn’t get any royalties at all, not even, like, a year of free Arby’s.”

It’s not the only time that the facility — a typically serious scientific setting — has been put to equally unique or interesting purposes, though. “For instance, we’ve been asked to analyze pieces of clothing and conduct forensics for crimincal investigations,” notes Henderson. “Given our advanced research equipment, we’ve also been asked to review everything from moon rocks to frogs’ tongues — and practical applications that companies can derive from their scientific properties. On top of it, they’ve also had us test samples and run mechanical property analyses for the Library of Congress and [on] trade secret items for different companies or matters of national security for the government.”

While life inside the lab is fairly routine, Henderson notes, it’s definitely more interesting and varied than some might suspect. “There are certainly moments,” he says. That said, just don’t ask him what happened to the original see, which has since gone AWOL. “I don’t know what happened to it… or if someone at it,” he muses. “But I still have a bottle of sesame seeds in my office, so we could always make a new one.”

by Scott Steinberg, Mgt 99

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