Joost Frenken obtained his Ph.D. degree in Physics (Cum Laude) from the University of Utrecht in 1986. His Ph.D. project was carried out at the FOM-Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMOLF) in Amsterdam under the supervision of Frans Saris and Friso van der Veen. From 1986 to 1988, Frenken worked as an Alexander-von-Humboldt Fellow at the Max-Planck-Institut für Strömungsforschung in Göttingen (Germany) with Peter Toennies. After a short stay in 1988 at the IBM, Thomas J. Watson Research Centre in Yorktown Heights (NY, USA) in the team of Joe Demuth, Frenken started his own research group at AMOLF in Amsterdam, first as a C. and C. Huygens Fellow and later as a senior staff member. In 1994, Frenken was appointed Extraordinary Professor at Leiden University, and in 1996 he moved to the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory in Leiden as a regular (Full) Professor, where he headed his Interface Physics Group until the end of 2017. From 2007 to 2013 Frenken was the Scientific Director of the Dutch, national SmartMix consortium: Nano-Imaging under Industrial Conditions (NIMIC). In addition, he served as the initiator and Director of the Dutch NanoNextNL program on Nano-Imaging and Characterization and of several Dutch FOM-programs, such as the program on Fundamental Aspects of Friction. In 2014, Frenken started as the first Director of the Advanced Research Center for Nanolithography (ARCNL) in Amsterdam, which was accompanied by a combined professorship in Experimental Physics at the University of Amsterdam and at the VU University Amsterdam. In 2022, Frenken started at the University of Groningen as the Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering and a Professor of Physics.

Frenken is a member of the Netherlands Royal Academy of Sciences (KNAW; since 2007), has served on a variety of national and international committees and boards, is a past-chairman of the Dutch Association for Crystal Growth, former president of the Netherlands Vacuum Society, and past-chairman of the Condensed Matter Division of FOM, the former Dutch national physics funding agency.

In addition to regular research grants, Frenken has been the recipient of several awards and prestigious research grants. In 1985, he won the Nottingham Prize (45^th PEC meeting, Milwaukee), in 1996 he was awarded a “Pionier” personal research grant from the Netherlands Research Council (NWO) in combination with an NWO-Groot large investment grant for the development of advanced scanning probe microscopy. In 2004, Frenken was the recipient of the Science Prize of IUVSTA (International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique and Applications) ‘for his pioneering work in the development and application of scanning probe microscopy to study various dynamical processes at surfaces’, in 2007 he received the Jacob Kistemaker-Prijs (triennial, Dutch physics award) ‘for the development of and research into dynamical scanning tunneling microscopy under extreme conditions and for making this technique of use in chemistry and biology’, in 2010 he received an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for a research program on Science F(r)iction. He was the recipient of the 2012 FOM-Valorization Prize (Dutch award for valorization of basic research in physics). Frenken was co-applicant of the 10-year NWO-Gravitation program Frontiers of NanoScience (NanoFront) that was awarded in 2012 to the universities of Delft and Leiden. In 2017 Frenken was awarded the Innovation in Materials Characterization Award of the Materials Research Society (MRS) ‘for the development, application and commercialization of high-speed, temperature-controlled, in-situ scanning probe microscopy, leading to key insights in the structure, dynamics and chemistry of surfaces and interfaces.’

Central to the research of Joost Frenken is the fundamental understanding of the dynamic aspects of surfaces and interfaces and their role in relevant, natural or industrial processes under practical conditions. Topics of interest have included surface diffusion, crystal growth (e.g. graphene), surface phase transitions, catalysis, friction, and, more recently, the deposition, growth and evolution of thin and ultrathin layers. For tailor-made measurements in each of these areas, Frenken’s research group has developed a variety of special-purpose scanning probe microscopes as well as dedicated instrumentation for surface x-ray diffraction.

Frenken has been (co)-initiator of two spin-off companies. Leiden Probe Microscopy BV markets commercialized versions of the research equipment developed in Frenken’s research group, with an emphasis on advanced scanning probe and x-ray diffraction instrumentation. Applied NanoLayers BV is specialized on the large-scale production of high-quality graphene and other monolayer materials.

3 Papers from 2017-2022 period:

On the origin of frictional energy dissipation

1. Hu, S.Yu. Krylov, J.W.M. Frenken

Tribology Letters 68, 2020, 1-13

This theoretical article demonstrates that the frictional energy loss between two sliding bodies readily follows from the dephasing of phonons that are generated in each slip event. This naturally makes the energy ‘dissipation’ appear as critically damped motion.

In situ observations of an active MoS₂ model hydrodesulfurization catalyst

R.V. Mom, J.N. Louwen, J.W.M. Frenken, I.M.N. Groot

Nature Communications 10 (1), 2019, 2546

In this paper, a special-purpose STM was used to show how the active edge sites of an MoS₂ model catalyst adapt their sulfur, hydrogen, and hydrocarbon coverages depending on the precise reaction conditions. DFT calculations were employed for detailed interpretations.

Observing the oxidation of platinum

M.A. Van Spronsen, J.W.M. Frenken, I.M.N. Groot

Nature communications 8 (1), 2017, 429

High-pressure, high-temperature STM observations were used to reveal two unique oxide structures on the Pt(111) surface that contain active O atoms. These only form under reaction conditions and are essential in the special properties of Pt as an oxidation catalyst.