Jonathan E Spanier received a BA degree in physics from Drew University in Madison NJ, received the PhD with Distinction from Columbia University in 2001 in applied physics (condensed matter) with Professor Irving P Herman, and he completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in physical chemistry at Harvard University with Professor Hongkun Park prior to joining the Drexel faculty in 2003. He is presently an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering and recently served as the University Provost Fellow in 2009. He served as the Interim Associate Department Head for MSE from 2006-08, and holds an affiliated appointment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Prior to completing the PhD, Professor Spanier held research and technical staff positions at the US Naval Research Laboratory in physical acoustics and in the semiconductor device industry, and was a visiting lecturer at the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, in 2001.

Professor Spanier’s current research interests include the synthesis of, and collective electronic, optical and functional properties in individual single- and multi-component inorganic nanostructures, and in thin-film materials and devices. Professor Spanier’s group applies a variety of experimental methods, including variable-temperature and multi-channel scanning proximal probes, Raman scattering spectroscopy, and high-resolution electron and ion-beam microscopy and nano-fabrication. Professor Spanier received the US Army Research Office (ARO) Young Investigator Award in 2004, the Nano-Bio Interface Innovation Award in 2005, and the Outstanding Research Award in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at Drexel for 2007. In 2007, Professor Spanier was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for 2006. His work is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the US Army Research Office (ARO), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the MITRE Corporation, Air Products Corporation, Structured Materials Industries, Inc., and the Department of Health of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Professor Spanier is a member of the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society and the Materials Research Society.