Frances Ross

Frances Ross is the TDK Professor in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Her research focuses on using transmission electron microscopy to watch crystals as they grow and react, gaining a better understanding of the physics underlying reactions to suggest new ways of creating materials with a desired set of properties. Ross was a postdoc at Bell Labs and a staff scientist at the National Center for Electron Microscopy at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Later, at IBM in Yorktown Heights, New York, she worked on the development and application of electron microscope technology to study crystal growth in vapor and liquid environments. She earned a PhD in materials science and metallurgy from Cambridge University.

Selected Publications

• Ou, Y., Mirzhalilov, M., Nemes, N. M., Martinez, J. L., Rocci, M., Duong, A., Akey, A., Foucher, A. C., Ge, W., Suri, D., Wang, Y., Ambaye, H., Keum, J., Randeria, M., Trivedi, N., Burch, K. S., Bell, D. C., Ross, F. M., Wu, W., Heiman, D., Lauter, V., Moodera, J. S., & Chi, H. (2025). Enhanced ferromagnetism in monolayer Cr₂Te₃ via topological insulator coupling. Reports on Progress in Physics, 88(6), Article 060501.
• Foucher, A., Schwacke, M., Yildiz, B., & Ross, F. (2024). In situ biasing STEM investigation of Mg-based electrochemical ionic synapses (EIS) devices. In Proceedings of the 2024 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting & Exhibit, Symposium CH05: Frontiers of Imaging and Spectroscopy in Transmission Electron Microscopy. Materials Research Society.
• Defferriere, T., Wang, B., Klein, J., Ross, F. M., & Tuller, H. L. (2024). Field-driven solid-state defect control of bilayer switching devices. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 16(35), 46461–46472. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.4c09826

Media

• May 9, 2025: MIT News, School of Engineering faculty and staff receive awards for winter 2025
• November 27, 2023: MIT News, Celebrating five years of MIT.nano
• July 25, 2023: MIT News, New quantum magnet unleashes electronics potential