Colin P Flynn

Dr Flynn is a Professor of Physics and of Materials Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

History

Professor Flynn received his bachelor's degree and later his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Leeds in 1957 and 1960, respectively. After beginning as a professor at the University of Illinois he returned to England briefly to work at Cambridge University where he was given an M.A. (Hon.) in physics. He initially arrived in the United States in 1960 as a research associate at University of Illinois. Two years pater he became an assistant professor. Moving quickly through the ranks he became a full professor of physics at the U of I in 1968 when he was inducted into the faculty at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory (MRL). Subsequently he was promoted to director of the MRL, a position which he held from 1978-1987. Dr. Flynn is a fellow of the American Physical Society as well as the American Society for Metals.

Was listed in "Who's Who in America" and "Who's Who in the World" by the age of 30.

Primary Areas of Research

Dr. Flynn's primary areas of research are experimental condensed matter physics, epitaxy, defects and diffusion and magnetism. He has also taught Optics along with a varioety of other Graduate-Level physics courses while at the University of Illinois.

Contributions

Dr. Flynn is most distinguished as an experimentalist. He has made several contributions to the field of condensed matter physics. As early as the 1960s, hi research led him to test magnetic resonance in a fundamental study of the behavior and motion of defects and impurities in solids. This research culminated in his book, Point Defects, an Introduction to the Properties of Imperfect Srystals. Dr. Flynn text is still to this day the definitive source of information for this field. Later in his career, Dr. Flynn's research shifted focus in the direction of magnetic and electrical responses of defects. His most recent contributions have been related to surfaces and films, as well as bulk specimens. In this areas he has devoted much time to the behaviors exhibited by atomic scale step edges on the surfaces of metals and crystals.

Professor Flynn's contributions have also included being the pioneer of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) molecular beam epitaxy, a method of growing metallic superlattices. He is also responsible for the creation of the Epi-Center MBE facility in the MRL. Between 2005 and 2007, Dr. Flynn has has focused the majority of his time on acquiring, installing, and initializing use of a low-energy electron microscope (LEEM) at the MRL. This is one of only five LEEMs that is currently operational in the United States.

Due to Dr. Flynn's efforts a significant program related to the structure and properties of magnetic/non-magnetic superlattices has evolved at the University of Illinois. Recently, Professor Flynn, working alongside Dr. Salamon, has spent signnifcant time exploring the structure and magnetic behavior of rare earth metals grown by MBE as single-crystal thin films.

Links to Articles

http://flux.aps.org/meetings/YR04/MAR04/baps/abs/S4130004.htmlhttp://www.mrs.org/s_mrs/sec_subscribe.asp?CID=3113&DID=188820&action=detailhttp://flux.aps.org/meetings/YR04/MAR04/baps/abs/S720011.htmlhttp://www.sc.doe.gov/BES/dms/Publications/DMSE_Sponsored/Xtal-Growth.pdfhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TVX-4DPSVWC-7&_user=10&_coverDate=01%2F10%2F2005&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=34812f6adfbbfcd1fbfc53e008d0acdchttp://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=PRBMDO000072000008085422000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yeshttp://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=PRBMDO000071000008085422000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes

Sources

http://www.physics.uiuc.edu/People/Flynn/http://www.physics.uiuc.edu/People/Flynn/LEEM.htmlhttp://www.cscamm.umd.edu/programs/nid07/abstracts/flynn.htmhttp://www.mrl.uiuc.edu/