Prize Recipient

Frances Hellman
University of California, Berkeley

"In recognition of using emerging micromachining techniques to significantly extend the range of calorimetry into the realm of nanoscale science by construction of Si based microcalormeters capable of operating in extreme environments with unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy."

Education   1978 BA, Physics, Dartmouth College  1985 PhD, Applied Physics, Stanford University, with T. H. Geballe

Professional Experience 1/05-date Professor, Depts. of Physics, Materials Science & Engineering, UC Berkeley 7/04-date Member, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 8/87-12/04 Professor, Dept. of Physics, UC San Diego 8/85-8/87 Postdoctoral Member of Technical Staff, AT&T Bell Laboratories.

Research Interests  My research concerns the physics of novel magnetic, semiconducting, and superconducting materials. Thin film growth techniques are used to prepare materials not available by bulk preparation techniques, such as amorphous alloys, multilayers, or metastable materials. Current research includes: effects of spin on transport and tunneling, including studies of amorphous magnetically-doped semiconductors and spin injection from ferromagnets into Si; finite size effects on magnetic and thermodynamic properties; formation of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in films and effects of vapor-deposition growth on short and long range chemical and structural order in amorphous and crystalline alloys. We have an extensive effort in development of calorimetry for thin films and small bulk samples, based on Si-microfabrication techniques.

Awards and Honors APS Keithley Instrumentation Award (2006) Fellow of the American Physical Society (1997) National Merit Scholar (1974) Phi Beta Kappa Dartmouth College (1978) Member of BPA and NSF-MPSAC Former Chair of GMAG and DMP

Dwight Rickel (Chair), Dwight Adams ('05 winner)(12/05), Stan Tozer (V. Chair)(12/06), Chuck Agosta (12/06)