Series IV. Oliver C. Wells Papers, 1907-2012, undated

Oliver C. Wells (1931-2013) was a British microscopist, inventor, and a member of the Microscopy Society of America. Born in London, England on February 14, 1931, Wells was a grandson of British science fiction author H.C. Wells. He attended Marlborough College, then joined the British Army (1949-1950), where he served as a Sergeant instructor in radar techniques and developed pulse-shaping circuits.

After his military service, Wells attended the University of Cambridge, earning his B.A. and M.A. in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering (1953), and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (1957). At Cambridge, he studied under Charles W. Oatley, a pioneer in scanning electron microscopy. As a graduate student, Wells designed and built a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and used it to study fibers. He also made several other contributions to scanning electron microscopy at Cambridge, which included inventing a method for examining open-ended fine tubes and developing techniques for stereo imaging. After receiving his Ph.D., Wells went to work at Ericsson Telephone Company in Nottingham, England (1957-1959). At Ericsson, he developed circuits for information exchange.

Wells moved to the United States in 1959 and joined the staff of Westinghouse Electric Corporation’s Research and Development Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1959-1964). At Westinghouse, he designed and built a scanning electron microscope and invented SEM-type registration for electron beam lithography. He also became the first to obtain an electron beam induced signal image (EBIC image) of a semiconductor device and applied scanning electron microscopy to integrated circuits.

From 1964 to 1965, Wells worked at CBS Laboratories in Stamford, Connecticut. At CBS Laboratories, he headed a research team that studied the deposition of epitaxial films by ultra-high vacuum evaporation. During this time, he also published an analysis of electron beam machining. In 1965, Wells went to work at IBM, where he served as a staff member at the firm’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York (1965-2011). During his time at IBM, he developed low-loss electron imaging for high-resolution imaging. He also tested microelectronic devices by various electron beam methods. At IBM, Wells also developed methods for advanced backscattered electron imaging. Wells retired from IBM in 1993 and remained with the firm as an Emeritus Research Staff Member until 2011.

Oliver C. Wells was an active member of the Microscopy Society of America and the Microanalysis Society, serving a stint as President of the latter organization (1980). He was also awarded several patents and authored and co-authored numerous articles over the course of his career. Wells also authored the book Scanning Electron Microscopy (1974) and was the recipient of several awards, including the Microanalysis Society’s Victor G. Macres Memorial Award (1975) and the Microscopy Society of America’s Distinguished Scientist Award for the Physical Sciences (1992).

Oliver C. Wells passed away on February 20, 2013.

This series contains the professional and personal papers of Oliver C. Wells, which he donated to the Microscopy Society of America. The contents of the Oliver C. Wells Papers are arranged into the following fourteen sub-series: