Wilson Ho did his undergraduate work at California Institute of Technology doing research in the laboratory of Professor Henry Weinberg.  He graduated from Cal Tech in 1975 and came to the University of Pennsylvania to work in my group.   His thesis work involved the use of high-resolution inelastic electron scattering from surface to probe the energy and symmetry of adsorbate vibrational modes.  

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Wilson Ho working on electron spectrometer

The picture shows Wilson working on the instrument he designed and built.   His most famous paper from the work at PENN was; “Observation of Non-Dipole Electron Impact Vibrational Excitation: H on W(100)”, W. Ho, R.F. Willis, and E.W. Plummer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 40, 1463-1466 (1978).

Wilson graduated in 1979 and went to work at AT&T Bell Labs, but moved to Cornell University in 1980.  In 2000 he accepted the Donald Bren Professorship at the University of California Irvine.  He has had an illustrious career, winning the Notthingam Prize for his thesis work in 1979, a Sloan Fellowship in 1981, the Medard Welch Award in 2011, and election to the National academy of Sciences in 2013. 

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Wilson's induction into NAS

The second figure shows the two of us at the National Aerospace museum in April of 2014 when Wilson was inducted into the NAS.


Wilson and I have enjoyed many adventures including our bike tour of Italy in 1988.  The last picture shows younger versions of Ho and Plummer in Asolo,  Italy.

biking in Italy

Biking in Italy