Frances M. Ross

Frances Mary Ross is an American materials scientist. She is the Ellen Swallow Richards Professor in Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her work involves the use of in situ transmission electron microscopy to study nanostructure formation.

In 2018, she was awarded the International Federation of Societies for Microscopy Hatsujiro Hashimoto Medal. Ross is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, the Microscopy Society of America, the Royal Microscopical Society, and the National Academy of Engineering.

Early life and education Ross studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. She moved to the Department of Materials for her doctoral studies, and completed a PhD in materials and metallurgy in 1989. Her doctoral work considered transmission electron microscopy of silicon oxides. She was appointed as a postdoctoral research associate at AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1990.

Research and career In 1992 Ross started her academic career as a staff scientist in the University of California, Berkeley National Center for Electron Microscopy. She moved to the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in 1997 where she worked as a research staff member. To grow the nanowires in an electron microscope Ross uses small catalytic particles, a flat substrate and a gas that contains silicon. Here she is developing a TEM for Two-dimensional materials in one of the MIT quiet rooms. These rooms minimise interference from electromagnetic fields and temperature fluctuations. She has previously demonstrated that it is possible to use electrochemical electron-beam lithography to write, read and erase these nanocrystals. Two-dimensional materials are difficult to study using conventional equipment because electron microscopes can damage their structures. In an effort to avoid this, Ross has proposed using lower voltage electrons as well as a high vacuum.

Awards and honours Her awards and honours include;

1999 Institute of Physics Moseley medal 2000 Materials Research Society Outstanding Young Investigator Award 2003 Microscopy Society of America Burton Medal 2011 Fellow of the American Physical Society 2012 Fellow of the Microscopy Society of America 2017 Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society 2018 Hatsujiro Hashimoto Medal 2019 Gerhard Ertl Lecture Award 2026 National Academy of Engineering

Selected publications Her publications include;