Laurent Francis

Laurent A. Francis was born in Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, in 1978. He received the M.Eng. degree in materials science with a minor in electrical engineering (summa cum laude) and the PhD degree in applied sciences from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, in 2001 and 2006, respectively. Since September 2007, he holds the Microsystems Chair position at UCL as associate professor and is leading member of the research group Sensors, Microsystems and Actuators Laboratory of Louvain (SMALL). His PhD thesis was related to acoustic-wave based microsystems for biosensing applications at IMEC (Interuniversity MicroElectronics Center) in Leuven. Between 2000 and 2007 he was with IMEC as researcher, successively in the Biosensors and RF-MEMS groups. In 2011, he was visiting professor at the Université de Sherbrooke, Canada. His scientific interests are related to co-integrated CMOS MEMS and NEMS sensors, harsh environment ultra-low power sensors, biomedical sensors, atomic layer deposition, bio-inspired approaches and device packaging. He is regular member of IEEE (UFFC, MTT and EMBS) and a board member of the Belgian National Committee Biomedical Engineering. He is member of the editorial advisory board of the “Sensors and Transducers Journal” and of the editorial board of the “Journal of Sensors” (Hindawi Publ. Corp.) He has authored or co-authored 28 scientific publications in international journals and holds one patent.