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Frans Spaepen

Faculty
  • John C. and Helen F. Franklin Professor of Applied Physics
  • Director of the Rowland Institute at Harvard
Frans Spaepen

Contact Information

Office: Pierce Hall 207
Email: spaepen [ AT ] seas [ DOT ] harvard [ DOT ] edu
Office Phone: (617) 495-3760
Office Fax: (617) 495-9837
Lab Room: McKay 402
Lab Phone: (617) 495-4469
Assistant: Barbara Sewall
Office: Pierce Hall 225
Email: sewall [ AT ] seas [ DOT ] harvard [ DOT ] edu
Office Phone: 617/495-2677

Recruitment Status

Currently accepting graduate students.

Websites

Education

  1. Burgerlijk metaalkundig ingenieur, 1971, University of Leuven
  2. Ph.D., 1975, Applied Physics, Harvard University,

Research Interests

    • Materials & Devices
    • Materials Science
    • Soft Condensed Matter
    • Surface and Interface Science

Primary Teaching Area

Applied Physics

Profile

Spaepen conducts research in the following areas:

  • Amorphous materials (metals, semiconductors, polymers): structure, formation, stability, mechanical properties, atomic transport (viscosity, diffusivity, structural relaxation, crystallization)

  • Polytetrahedral structure of liquids and quasicrystals

  • Thin films and multilayers: preparation, stability, mechanical properties.  General effects of size scale on mechanical properties

  • Properties of interfaces: crystal/melt, amorphous/crystalline semiconductor, grain boundaries, grain growth, interface tension, interface stress. 

  • Colloidal systems as analog computers for the study of defects and deformation of crystals and glasses (with D. Weitz)

  • Determination of Avogadro's number with an accuracy or better than 10 ppb.  Collaboration with metrology laboratories worldwide that are using the silicon single crystal approach.  Developing methods to certify the perfection of the silicon to 10 ppb

Positions & Employment

Rowland Institute at Harvard

  • Present: Director

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

  • Present: John C. and Helen F. Franklin Professor
  • 2008-2009: Interim Dean
Harvard Center for Nanoscale Systems
  • 2009-2010: Interim Director
Harvard Materials Research Laboratory/Materials Research Science and Engineering Center
  • 1990-1998: Director
Harvard Division of Applied Sciences
  • 1983: Professor
  • 1981: Associate Professor
  • 1977: Assistant Professor

Other Experience

  • Co-editor, Solid State Physics, 1994-2009

Honors

  • Member, National Academy of Engineering, 2008
  • Fellow, American Physical Society (chairman of the Division of Materials Physics in 1992)
  • Fellow, Metallurgical Society of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers
  • Member, Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten
  • Fellow, Materials Research Society

Selected Publications