Frans Spaepen

Biography: Frans Spaepen is Gordon McKay professor of applied physics at Harvard University. He earned his undergraduate degree in metallurgical engineering at the University of Leuven in 1971 and a Ph.D. in applied physics from Harvard University in 1975. He joined the faculty of the Division of Applied Sciences at Harvard in 1977.

His research interests span a wide range of experimental and theoretical topics in materials science, such as amorphous metals and semiconductors (viscosity, diffusion, mechanical properties), the structure and thermodynamics of interfaces (crystal/melt, amorphous/crystalline semiconductors, grain boundaries), mechanical properties of thin films, and the perfection of silicon crystals for metrological applications.