Frances Hellman

Frances Hellman joined the department of physics at UC Berkeley in January 2005, became chair of the department in 2007, and became dean in January 2015. This past year, Hellman appointed a task force on sexual harassment in her division to conduct research, identify issues, and produce recommendations regarding the prevention and response to sexual harassment that are particularly salient in the science community.

She received her B.A. in physics from Dartmouth College in 1978, graduating summa cum laude and phi beta kappa with high honors in physics. Hellman received her Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University in 1985. After a two-year postdoc in thin film magnetism at AT&T Bell Labs, she went to UC San Diego as an assistant professor in 1987, where she received tenure in 1994 and became a full professor in 2000. Her research is in condensed matter experiments, specifically physics of novel magnetic, semiconducting, and superconducting materials, using thin film growth to prepare materials not available by bulk preparation, such as amorphous alloys, multilayers, and Si micromachining to fabricate nanocalorimeters. Her recent focus is on growth and thermodynamics of amorphous materials and on novel magnetic effects induced by strong spin orbit coupling and interfaces in heterostructures. Hellman is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, recipient of the American Physical Society’s Keithley Instrumentation Award, fellow of the American Physical Society and has been a member of the Board on Physics and Astronomy and Advisory Boards for the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the American Physical Society.