Harvard Names CNS Interim Director

Frans Spaepen, director of the Rowland Institute, is serving as interim director of Harvard University’s Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS). Spaepen began his new position July 1, upon completion of his term as interim dean of Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). Spaepen, the John C. and Helen F. Franklin Professor in Applied Physics, will return to direct Harvard’s Rowland Institute after helping to guide CNS through changes suggested in a recent report by an external review committee, the university said. CNS, which for the past five years has been led by Charles Marcus, professor of physics and scientific director of the Center for Imaging and Mesoscale Structures, operates and maintains centralized scientific facilities for use by researchers at Harvard and beyond. It also provides training and assistance for the next generation of scientists and places a high priority on the development of new, advanced facilities for the imaging and fabrication of nanoscale structures.