ALD History Blog: 2026

Thursday, 3 September 2026

Guest post by Seidel: Learning from the Greats

The ALD History Blog has the honor to host its second guest post, "Learning from the Greats" by Dr. Thomas E. (Tom) Seidel. The first guest post by Prof. Al Weimer on early particle ALD in Colorado can be accessed here.

The author, Tom Seidel, is a reknown semiconductor technologist, with whom we have shared an interest in the history of ALD (at least) since the ALD 2004 conference in Helsinki, Finland. A related ALD History Blog post, "Where were you when I asked that question?" can be accessed here. Answering the question of the post title: Tom was sitting in one of the rows in front of me in the large lecture hall at that very moment, and that is when we met for the first time with him. We exchanged a few words: we both knew about the early Soviet literature on ALD, that it is openly available, and that it predates the invention of ALD as Atomic Layer Epitaxy. Dr. Seidel later contacted me to join to contribute to the VPHA (which was initiated in 2013 and which I coordinated) and he is among the 62 co-authors of the "Recommended reading list..." review published in the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology (35, 010801 (2017), https://doi.org/10.1116/1.4971389). Tom's (impressive!) CV is included at the end of this guest post, in which he tells us about his personal learnings from the greats- some learnings relate to ALD history in one way or another and many go beyond it, and they all are are interesting. Warmest thanks, Tom, for trusting me to publish your text in the ALD History Blog.

If another former VPHA contributor -- and perhaps even non-contributor, who wishes to tell openly of ALD history related things -- would wish to write a guest post, feel free to contact me at my institutional address and propose a topic.

Espoo, Finland, September 3, 2026

Riikka Puurunen

--- guest post begins ---

Learning from the Greats

Tom Seidel

Brief encounters with famous personalities of the 20^th century are described. Each encounter leaves one with learning and values commonly found in very accomplished people.

The author is a retired semiconductor technologist, with tenures at Bell Laboratories and SEMATECH. His technical contributions were in Ion Implantation and Atomic Layer Deposition. In retirement, he has affiliations at MIT and U Florida.

Dallas Green – 1953 (Major League Player and Manager)

Dallas Green was a moderately successful major league baseball pitcher, but he established fame as a Phillies manager when they won the 1980 World Series. In high school he was considered the best athlete in the greater Wilmington DE area. It was on the high school basketball court where I met him. He scored 21 points for his school. My school team-mate and I had 11 points each, so Dallas alone scored about the same as our two high scorers that day. Yet, we won by 5 points using press and fast break tactics, taught to perfection by our remarkable coach, John Birkenhauer. He had a lifetime winning percentage of ~85%. Coach once said, “You will rarely play better in competition than you do in practice.” Dallas Green played sports at the University of Delaware, was noticed by Phillies scouts and signed by them. Later, as a manager, he demanded the most from his players, and although they often disliked his demands, they were the first to admit that his system worked. In 1980, the Phillies were blest with two Hall of Famers, third baseman MVP, Mike Schmidt and a Cy Young pitcher, Steve Carlton. Any successful coach will tell you winning is enabled by having great talent. Dallas had an up and down pitching career, but he always kept at it, he never gave up.

I learned that to achieve one’s highest goal, one must repeatedly persevere.

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Dallas Green_(baseball)

Giuseppe Mario (“GM”) Bellanca - 1954 (Aviation Pioneer)

The phone rang and my high school friend, Leonard Bellanca said we had an invitation for dinner with his famous uncle. We drove to his retirement estate on the Chesapeake and were greeted by “GM” himself at a Georgean style home. There were no servants.