Vincent Meunier

Vincent Meunier
Meunier at the inaugural lecture as International Francqui Chair in 2019
Born	(1974-06-23) 23 June 1974 (age 47) Bastogne, Belgium
Citizenship	United States; Belgium
Alma mater	University of Namur
Known for	Computational Condensed Matter Physics; Low-dimensional Materials Modeling
Awards	Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2019), International Francqui Chair (2019); Fellow of the American Physical Society (2011); Fellow of the Institute of Physics (2017)
Scientific career
Fields	Physics Computational Science Materials Science
Institutions	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Since 2010) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2002–2010) North Carolina State University (2000-2002) University of Namur (1996–1999)
Thesis	Electronic and Structural Properties of Carbon Nanotubes
Doctoral advisor	Philippe Lambin
Website	faculty.rpi.edu/vincent-meunier

Vincent Meunier is a Belgian/American condensed matter and materials physicist known for his theoretical and computational research on electronic, optoelectronic, and structural properties of low-dimensional materials. Among his contributions are the quantum mechanical description of processes responsible for scanning tunneling image formation in low-dimensional materials, the development of a microscopic theory of nanocapacitors, and contributions to the theory of electronic transport and ultra-low frequency vibrational modes in van der Waals heterostructures. He is the Head and Professor in the Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York, USA where he holds the Gayl and Jeffrey Kodosky Constellation Chair in Physics. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), of the Institute of Physics (IOP), and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Education and early career[]

Meunier completed his high-school training in the Institut Saint-Michel in Neufchateau, Belgium in 1992. While studying at UNamur, in Namur (Belgium) he earned a B.Sc. in Physics (1996) and a M.Sc. in Physics and Chemistry of Mesoscopic Systems (1998). He then completed a Ph.D. in Physics (maxima cum laude) in 1999 as a Research Fellow supported by a FRIA scholarship from the National Fund for Scientific Research of Belgium.

Early January 2000, Meunier became a post-doctoral Fellow (2000–2002) at the Physics Department of the North Carolina State University under Jerry Bernholc and Christopher Roland, and later a research associate (2002–2004) with the Computer Science and Mathematics Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory under the supervision of Thomas Zacharia. In April 2004, he became a R&D Staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and was among the inaugural staff of the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (2005) at Oak Ridge where he was appointed as Senior R&D Staff member in 2009.

Later career and current positions[]

In 2010, Meunier accepted a Chaired Associate Professor (with tenure) appointment with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York.^[1] By doing so, Meunier completed the Gail and Jeffrey L. Kodosky ’70 Constellation following Prof. Shengbai Zhang's appointment in 2008.

In January 2015, Meunier was appointed as Full Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy and in July 2015 he succeeded to Prof. as the head of the Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with an appointment renewed in 2018 (3 years) and in 2021 (3 years).

In January 2018, Meunier became an Editor of the Elsevier journal Carbon^[2] and, he was Senior Editor of that journal from January 2020 to end of December 2020. In September 2020, Meunier became the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Open Access Elsevier journal Carbon Trends.^[3] In October 2018, he joined the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.^[4]

Honors and awards[]

2019: Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) ^[5]
2019: International Francqui Professor, Francqui Foundation^[6][7][8]
2018: Clarivate Most Highly Cited Researcher ^[9]
2015: Fellow, Institute of Physics
2011: Fellow, American Physical Society - Division of Computational Physics (DCOMP) ^[10][11]
2010: Rensselaer Constellation Chair Medal ^[1]
2007: Oak Ridge National Laboratory Early Career Award for scientific accomplishments.

Educational Activities[]

Meunier's teaching focuses on computational and quantum physics education. He developed a Computational Physics curriculum at the senior undergraduate level and taught that course from 2010 to 2015. Since 2010, he also teaches advanced courses such as Introduction to Density Functional Theory and Advanced Computational Physics at the graduate level. He has been teaching Quantum Mechanics to physics undergraduates at RPI since 2017 and took on teaching Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics at RPI since 2020.

Research Activities[]

At RPI, Meunier leads the Innovative Computational Material Physics (ICMP) group where he performs research in low-dimensional materials and domains where he collaboratively works with engineers and experimentalists to optimize these materials, starting at the atomic level and targeting functionality. He has contributed on an array of computational materials science topics including electronic transport, vibrational properties, energy storage in supercapacitors, the physics of reduced dimensional materials such as carbon nanotubes and nanoribbons, and two-dimensional materials.

References[]