Dawn Bonnell

Dawn Austin Bonnell is the Senior Vice Provost for Research at the University of Pennsylvania. She has previously served as the Founding Director of the National Science Foundation Nano–Bio Interface Center, Vice President of the American Ceramic Society and President of the American Vacuum Society. In 2024, she was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

Early life and education Bonnell grew up in suburban Detroit. She was the eldest of four children. She deferred applying to college until she had started her own family, but, seven years later, found herself a single mother in need of more education to support her own children. She spent a year at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research – with her two children – where she worked with Manfred Ruehle on electron microscopy. She was a postdoctoral scholar at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center. The research centre was home to the first scanning tunnelling microscope, and Bonnell appreciated the potential of scanning tunnelling microscopy as a means to accelerate our understanding of ceramics. Her research has involved investigations into the structure-property relations of ceramic materials as well as studies into how the surface morphology impacts chemical reactions. The ability to visualize the atomic structure of surfaces and interfaces, and has applications in catalysis, biosensing and nanofabrication.

Bonnell was made Vice Provost for Research in 2013. She was also elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2013 for the development of atomic-resolution surface probes, and for institutional leadership in nanoscience.

Awards and honours National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award American Ceramic Society Robert B. Sosman Award American Ceramic Society Ross Coffin Purdy Award University of Michigan Distinguished Alumni Award American Ceramic Society Distinguished Member George H. Heilmeier Award for Excellence in Faculty Research Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Elected Fellow of the American Ceramic Society Elected to the National Academy of Engineering Elected Fellow of the Materials Research Society

Selected publications Imaging mechanism of piezoresponse force microscopy of ferroelectric surfaces (DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.65.125408) Local potential and polarization screening on ferroelectric surfaces (DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.63.125411) Local impedance imaging and spectroscopy of polycrystalline ZnO using contact atomic force microscopy (DOI:10.1063/1.1561168)