Frances Hellman

Professor of Physics; President; Trustee. Physicist who studies the thermodynamic properties of novel solid materials, especially thin film semiconducting, superconducting, and magnetic materials. She is currently the chair of the physics department and holds a dual appointment in the materials science and engineering department as well in the Materials Sciences Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. As a philanthropist, she oversees the Hellman Fellows Program, which supports junior tenure track faculty at specified program institutions, including branches of the University of California, Stanford, Harvard Business School, Williams College, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has served on, or chaired, a large number of national and local science boards, including the NSF Advisory Board on Math and Physical Sciences, the NRC Board on Physics and Astronomy, the NRC Solid State Sciences Committee, the DOE Division of Materials Science and Engineering Council, the APS Division of Materials Physics, the APS Division of Condensed Matter Physics, the APS Topical Group on Magnetism, the APS Committee on the Status of Women in Physics, the APS Panel on Public Policy, the editorial board for the Review of Scientific Instruments, the Elementary Institute of Science (in San Diego), COSMOS, a statewide math and science summer program for high school students, and the SF Exploratorium. In 2006 she received the Keithley Award from the American Physical Society, 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 microcalorimeters capable of operating in extreme environments with unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy.