John Spence (scientist)

John Spence (born 1946) is a British-born American physicist known for his work in the field of materials science, particularly in the development and application of atomic-resolution electron microscopy. He is a Regents Professor of Physics at Arizona State University.

Spence received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Oxford in 1973. He has made significant contributions to the understanding of electron diffraction and imaging, and has pioneered methods for determining the structure of materials at the atomic level using electron microscopy.

His research has focused on developing new techniques for aberration-corrected electron microscopy, which allows for the visualization of individual atoms in materials. These techniques have been applied to a wide range of materials, including semiconductors, catalysts, and biomolecules.

Spence is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Buerger Award from the American Crystallographic Association and the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Microscopy Society of America. He is also the author of several books on electron microscopy and diffraction, which are widely used as textbooks in the field. His work has had a profound impact on the field of materials science, enabling researchers to study the structure and properties of materials at the atomic level with unprecedented detail.