by Cindy Lee
Jim Underwood joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in 1983 as co-founder of the Center for X-ray Optics (CXRO), where he designed and led construction of the first beamline at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). Affiliated with the ALS until 2006, his legacy has continued to this day. His family, friends, and colleagues remember him fondly and share numerous stories of his talents, passions, and impact.
Jim was born in 1938 and grew up in England. His father was in the Royal Air Force, and his mother worked in a school. His mother bought him his first violin when he was 10, and he loved reading and music, two interests he maintained throughout his life. A prodigious student, Jim earned his PhD in physics from the University of Leicester at the young age of 25.
During his time in Leicester, Jim met Sylvi, a business and economics student on exchange from Finland. They fell in love and married, and so began Jim’s ties to Finnish culture.
“He wrote me love letters in Finnish,” said Sylvi Underwood. It was no small undertaking, considering the Finnish language has 16 cases. This relentless pursuit of learning was a common theme in Jim’s life, and he took up instrument-making. One of the Finnish instruments he built became a gift for Sylvi’s sister, while others are to be donated to Finnish heritage museums. He was a talented musician, playing the fiddle in Spain and Ireland, and taking up Finnish folk music.
Sylvi recalled the many adventures they shared over the course of Jim’s career, traveling as he worked for CERN, NASA, and Stanford before his time at Berkeley Lab. Outside of work, they climbed mountains, camped in Monument Valley, and even coached youth soccer together. Although their marriage ended, Sylvi and Jim remained friends, closely involved in each other’s lives.
Jim had two daughters, Ellen and Emily. “We loved his silly exuberance and his unique perspective on the world,” Emily wrote. She often joined him on his long bike rides, noting that Jim had a birthday tradition of riding as many miles as the age he was turning.
“He built a Finnish Jjouhikko from scratch and would play it at Christmastime dressed in a Santa costume,” Emily said, noting how Jim used his engineering skills to delight those around him. He also shared a love of animals with his grandson Leo, who was born in 2017.
Jim’s nephew, Tom Carroux, wrote, “I knew Uncle Jimmy was a scientist, that he had worked at NASA, but was nonetheless impressed when he proudly showed me photographs addressed to him and autographed by astronauts who had walked the moon.”
It was clear that Jim’s analytical mind and perseverance made an impression on his colleagues throughout his career. His supervisor at CXRO, Dave Attwood, wrote of his extensive contributions to the optics field and not just the “early days” at the ALS, but specifically first light at the ALS.
“This was a low-cost beamline based on a multilayer coated, Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) mirror pair, focusing 6 keV photons to a nominally one micron focal spot, which he developed with colleagues Albert Thompson and Phillip Batson,” said Dave. “Just after ‘first light’ at the ALS (just after midnight, Oct. 4/5, 1993), this beamline (10.1) enabled a broad array of scientific results.” Those results included the details from a contaminated solar cell and poison from a spider fang.
Jim was also involved in building the reflectivity beamline. Dave explained, “Beamline 6.3.2 played an important role in the development of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, the electronic patterning technique used in all present-day advanced computer chips and cell phones.”
The beamline development process was not without setbacks, Phil Batson recalled. “When I showed Jim the mirror holder, he grabbed it, bent it back and forth, and it broke into two pieces.” He joked, “That was the beginning of our great working relationship.”
Nevertheless, the two were able to collaborate on groundbreaking work. Phil described how they were part of a team that tested the world’s first X-ray laser. “Thanks to Jim, I was a part of that very exciting moment. And as time passed, I was involved in many great projects with Jim.”
Retired ALS colleague Wayne McKinney noted, “He was an early champion of variable line spaced gratings, a technology slowly embraced by the ALS, but proven very valuable in the long run.”
And, perhaps the mirror holder that Jim broke was just a precursor to another of his professional achievements. “Jim had critical contributions to mirror coatings, and mirror design and construction, including bendable mirrors,” said Wayne.
Jim’s work and impact continued even after retirement. He and ALS colleague Rupert Perera founded EUV Tech. “From the very beginning, we shared a singular purpose: not to pursue revenue goals, but to be the best and to build something the world had never seen before,” Rupert wrote. He added, “This shared commitment led us to create the world’s first standalone reflectometer.”
Rupert lauded Jim’s contributions to EUV lithography and EUV multilayers. More importantly, he said, “He was, quite simply, the most honest and kind person I have ever known.”
Dave Houser, CTO of EUV Tech, shared a memory of walking around with Jim to find a stone that could reshape a troublesome component. “In a world filled with complexity, Jim reminded me that the simplest solution was often right there at our feet.”
Patrick Naulleau experienced these types of life lessons as well, first at CXRO and now as CEO of EUV Tech. “I had the honor and pleasure of working side by side with Jim and witnessing brilliance in action, coupled with incredible, intuitive, hands-on experimentalist skills,” Patrick said.
“Ironically, many of the ‘next’ wavelengths and coatings now being discussed for the further extension of EUV lithography are the same ones Jim worked on in the early 80s,” Patrick commented. It is a testament to Jim’s pioneering work in the EUV field.
In a sentiment echoed by family, friends, and colleagues, Dave Attwood wrote, “Jim Underwood will be remembered as an excellent scientist, colleague and mentor to many. He was such a fine person, he will be missed by all fortunate to have known him.”
Read: Memories of Jim Underwood from family, friends, and colleagues
With thanks to Jim Underwood’s ex-wife Sylvi Underwood, who provided biographical information in an extensive interview.
