MNTL Welcomes Jean-Pierre Leburton

In 2017, MNTL welcomed Jean-Pierre Leburton to our ranks, as he moved from the Beckman Institute to facilitate key collaborations with several MNTL faculty researchers. A member of the University of Illinois family for many years, LeBurton’s chief areas of expertise are nanostructure and device physics, including transport in quantum structures and carbon-based nanostructures, spin effects in nanostructures, and nano-biotechnology. He explains his research focus, saying “I develop physical models to understand the behavior and operations on novel nanoscale electronic and optical devices. I also use these models to explore new properties of nanostructures.” Most recently, he’s been doing research that merges semiconductor physics with biology.

Leburton earned his Ph.D. from the University of Liege, Belgium, where he also received his B.S. degree. After working for a couple of years as a research scientist for the Siemens Company in Munich, he joined the U of I in 1981. He was drawn to research from the time that he discovered physics in high school.

Leburton is the Gregory Stillman Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, professor of physics, and a research professor at the Coordinated Science Laboratory, the F. Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, and the Micro & Nanotechnology Laboratory. Although he has received a great deal of professional recognition during his career, there are two honors that are of special significance to him. One is his elevation to the grade of Fellow of the IEEE, due to the fact that it speaks to peer recognition. The second is Fellow of the American Physics Society, because it recognizes his expertise and research as a physicist.