This is the accepted version of the article: Catalan G., Dawber M., Gregg M., Morrison F., Ramesh R., Zubko P.. James F. Scott (1942-2020). Nature materials, (2020). 19. : 580 - . 10.1038/s41563-020-0692-x. Available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-0692-x 1 2 Professor James F. Scott, F.R.S (1942 –2020) Father of modern ferroelectrics. 3 Gustau Catalan1, Matthew Dawber2, Marty Gregg3, Finlay Morrison4, Ramamoorthy 4 Ramesh5, Pavlo Zubko6 5 Professor James Floyd Scott was such a character that, despite his common first name, there was never any doubt to 6 whom you were referring when you talked about “Jim”. It is customary to highlight scientific contributions to a field, but, in 7 Jim’s case, it is easier to just name the entire field: his Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) citation refers to him as the 8 “father of integrated ferroelectrics”. 9 Most of us came into contact with Jim’s oeuvre in his ferroelectrics period, but that was actually his second career. His 10 first, for which his scientific contribution was arguably as important, was solid state spectroscopy. Having completed his 11 degree in Harvard and his PhD thesis at Ohio State at 23, he was recruited by Bell Labs to do solid state Raman 12 spectroscopy. There, he produced a series of remarkable studies of phase transitions. One of these works was on the 13 soft mode of SrTiO3, a model system for perovskites –the materials family to which many ferroelectrics belong- that 14 would continue to fascinate Jim, and about which he continued to publish to within weeks of his death. 15 At 29, Jim became a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he developed his research on thin films, co- 16 founded Symetrix, and forever tied his name to ferroelectric memories. Over the next twenty years, he would lead the 17 transformation of ferroelectrics, from a bulk ceramic technology to an integrated thin film technology apt for 18 microelectronic devices ranging from ferroelectric memories (about which he wrote the book) to microwave antennae. 19 Jim and coworkers discovered that the Aurivillius class of ferroelectrics, such as SrBi2Ta2O9, showed no polarization 20 fatigue, radically different from the behaviour of classic perovskite ferroelectrics. The discovery led to a revolution in 21 ferroelectric memory technology, since polarization fatigue was a barrier to commercialization; Jim was so convinced of 22 the importance of SBT that he even invested in a South American bismuth mine, which he later joked about. 23 Jim’s career has been so long and prolific it is difficult to do anything in our field without treading on an old gem of his. 24 When magnetic multiferroics became all the rage at the turn of the century, he could pull out old articles on multiferroic 25 fluorides, written in the 70’s. Ferroelectric skyrmions are now “hot”, but dig into the literature and the first article you’ll find 26 on them is from Jim and co-workers in 2006. And he did not rest on his laurels. In the multiferroics renaissance, he 27 played pivotal roles in resolvingthe complex phase diagram of arguably the most important one, BiFeO3 (a room 28 temperature multiferroic), or showing that existing multilayer capacitors could be repurposed as magnetoelectric sensors. 29 Even after his retirement from Cambridge, he found a new academic home in St Andrews, where he continued to 30 produce exceptional work, including the discovery (and explanation) of a giant negative electrocaloric effect in 31 antiferroelectrics. 32 But it would be a disservice to just talk about his research. For Jim, physics was a way of life, and his personal history 33 was interwoven with his science. His work took him around the world, from the US to Australia (as Dean at RMIT and 34 UNSW), and later to the UK (first Cambridge and then St Andrews), with spells elsewhere, everywhere forging life-long 35 collaborations, picking up accolades, and getting himself into all sorts of trouble. He had a unique perspective on the 36 Cold War, having spent a lot of time in the Soviet Union in the 80s, where he met and married the love of his life, Galya. 37 The adventures of an American scientist (with Los Alamos clearance!) trying to bring back a Russian wife would be 38 worthy of a separate book. It is a shame that he never got around to writing it,, for he was an exceptional raconteur. 39 Jim was generous with his time and ideas, and his door was never closed. He was gifted with an incredible memory: he 40 rarely made notes and could often not only recall complete citations, but tell you something about the author or history 41 behind the work. He combined his encyclopaedic knowledge with unique insights, often ahead of the curve. If you walked 42 down the corridor in Earth Sciences in Cambridge and didn't hear Jim pounding on the keyboard the first (and often final) 43 draft of his next paper, you would likely hear his calm voice explaining why bananas are not ferroelectric or sharing his 44 latest thoughts on ferroelectric physics, usually with a detour into the personal lives of other scientific greats or his own 45 adventures on the journey from his working-class roots in small-town New Jersey to the grand halls of Cambridge (UK). 46 Jim loved an argument and his verbal venom gave him a fiery reputation; his putdowns were legendary, as were some of 47 his catchphrases (“I don’t work for you!”). However, he was also a caring colleague and mentor, taking personal 48 satisfaction in the success of his students and postdocs. He had a soft-spot for underdogs, which is why many of us love 49 him and will forever feel privileged to have known him. Rest in peace, Jim Scott. 50 Affilliations 51 1 ICREA and Institut Catala de Nanociencia i Nanotecnologia (ICN2); 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University; 52 3 School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast; 4School of Chemistry, University of St Andrews; 5University of 53 California, Berkeley; 6University College London. 54 55 e-mail: gustau.catalan@icn2.cat 56 57 A ferroelectric memorial. Portrait made using Piezoresponse force microscopy to write nanoscopic ferroelectric 58 domains on a thin film of ferroelectric bismuth ferrite, 30 μm × 30 μm. 59 [Note to the art editor: Instructions and details of image source.]