Summer 2001 -- Vol. 18, No. 2

FACES OF PENN STATE

Vincent Crespi
Downsbrough Associate Professor of Physics

Carbon nanotubes represent one system on which Vincent Crespi has contributed key perspectives. Because he enjoys studying different systems, he decided to focus on theoretical, rqather than experimental, physics.

Thanks to a combination of common sense, humility, and intelligence, Vincent Crespi knows his role and thrives as an important member of the materials-science community at Penn State.

“Experimentalists do the real science because all science relies on experiments,” Crespi says. “As a theorist, you can only suggest things to be done. If you’re persuasive enough, though, you can vicariously conduct many experiments at once.”

The opportunity for such variety helped Crespi settle on a theoretical direction for his career.

“The thing about being an experimentalist is that you need a laboratory with all that expensive lab equipment to worry about,” Crespi says. “It’s much easier to put together a computer program than it is a lab and then you have more flexibility to address several problems.”

Much of Crespi’s success at Penn State comes from his personality. He’s talented, having earned several awards for his research, and team-oriented.

Having grown up in a large family, he appreciates the importance of collaboration and sharing both responsibilities and rewards. In addition, Crespi’s personality and pragmatism make him a welcome collaborator on research with colleagues on campus and across the nation. The general theme for his work—which includes models of carbon nanotubes and their applications as well as similar work in the field of optoelectronics—involves the design of new materials and an understanding of their properties in order to make things that are interesting or useful for applications or to achieve an improved understanding of basic science.

Growing up in Chicago, Crespi was exposed to science regularly. Both of his parents are chemists, and seven of the family’s eight children have pursued careers in science. The only non-scientist among the siblings majored in East Asian Studies.

At Penn State, Crespi brings a family approach to his work. With numerous graduate and post-doctoral students under his direction, the research group represents just another big family—with many responsibilities for its patriarch.

“My first year as a professor, this image of the research group as a pickup truck came in my mind,” Crespi says. “Out there are all those bugs and gravel, and the faculty member serves as the plastic shield on the front of the truck that protects students from worries about funding, office space, and teaching so they can focus on their work.”

So, while Crespi works to address cutting-edge research questions himself, he attempts to create a conducive educational environment for his students. He believes helping students, which he also does with his own business that provides free college-test-preparation courses for needy high-school students, ranks as his biggest responsibility.

-- By Steve Sampsell

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