Gyula Eres is a senior research staff member in the Materials Science and Technology Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He holds a Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His current research is focused on understanding the mechanisms and the kinetics of elementary surface processes that control the synthesis and properties of interfaces in epitaxial thin films, superlattices, and nanostructured materials relevant for advanced energy applications. The experimental approach combines energy enhanced and nonequilibrium growth techniques including pulsed laser deposition and supersonic molecular beam epitaxy with in situ time-resolved imaging, diffraction, and spectroscopic techniques such as surface x-ray diffraction, laser based optical diagnostics, mass spectrometry, and reflection high energy electron diffraction.