Monica Felicia Crăciun is a British-Romanian physicist who is a Professor of Nanoscience at the University of

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

. Her research investigates 2D Materials for civil engineering, wearable technologies and optoelectronic devices. Craciun has pioneered the incorporation of graphene into concrete, wearable technologies and optoelectronic devices.

Early life and education

Craciun was born in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. She completed her MSc in Applied Physics at the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

, where she majored in applied physics. She holds two other masters diplomas, in materials physics and engineering. She moved to the

Delft University of Technology The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...

for her doctoral research.

Research and career

Craciun was a

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

in both the

University of Twente The University of Twente ( ; Abbreviation, abbr. ) is a Public university, public technical university located in Enschede, Netherlands. The university has been placed in the top 170 universities in the world by multiple central ranking tables. ...

and

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

. Craciun joined the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of ...

in 2010. In 2014, she was selected as one of eight recipients of the EPSRC Engineering Fellowships for Growth, during which she explored 2D materials for smart coatings. She was promoted to Professor in 2017. Craciun has developed 2D materials for optoelectronic devices, wearable technologies, civil engineering and quantum sciences. She pioneered several strategies to control the electronic properties of graphene through functionalisation (e.g. the incorporation of fluorine atoms). She worked to improve the techniques used to produce graphene, and showed that a resistive-heating cold-wall

chemical vapor deposition Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a vacuum deposition method used to produce high-quality, and high-performance, solid materials. The process is often used in the semiconductor industry to produce thin films. In typical CVD, the wafer (electro ...

approach was considerably faster and cheaper than typical processes. The cold-wall system is common to semiconductor manufacturing industries. Craciun's approach (so-called nanoCVD) uses a cold-wall reactor with a resistive heating stage. She showed that this strategy to make graphene could enable the fabrication of a flexible transparent electronic device for a touch-based sensor technology. Craciun showed that graphene-based electronic threads could be woven in to polypropylene fibres for wearable technologies. Craciun created a novel form of concrete that was reinforced with graphene. The incoporation of graphene resulted in concrete that was more water resistant and strong, as well as having a lesser environmental impact.

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dubbed the material a "game-changer" for the construction industry. She created a company, ''Concrene'', based on this technology in 2018. The first graphene-enhanced concrete came to market in 2021. Craciun was appointed Chair of the 2D Materials interest group of the

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British UK Research Councils, Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical scienc ...

Materials for Quantum Network in 2022. She has spoken about 2D materials in a TEDxTalk in

Truro Truro (; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England; it is the southernmost city in the United Kingdom, just under west-south-west of Charing Cross in London. It is Cornwall's county town, s ...

Selected publications

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References

Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of Bucharest alumni Delft University of Technology alumni Academic staff of the University of Tokyo Academic staff of the University of Twente Romanian physicists {{catimprove, date=December 2022