Jean-Pierre Leburton

Techniques for effective and inexpensive DNA sensing and sequencing are important to understanding disease mechanisms, identifying genetically-based conditions, and developing methods for personalized diagnosis and treatment. In 2004, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) defined a set of goals for DNA sensing and sequencing. Leburton participated with Greg Timp and others in the NIH's Revolutionary Genome Sequencing Technologies program, popularly known as the "$1000 genome" project. Their goal was to develop a synthetic nanopore for the sequencing of DNA. Leburton developed a novel approach, applying techniques from semiconductor technology to artificial nanopores. By 2006, they were able to create multilayer artificial membranes, using semiconductor materials, and to manipulate their ion flow. Nanopore sequencing has been classed as a third-generation sequencing technique, and considered one of the most promising approaches to meeting the NIH's "gold standard".

In 2003, he was named the Gregory E. Stillman Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois. He has been the head of the Computational Electronics group at the Beckman Institute, and is currently a full-time faculty member in the Nanoelectronics and Nanomaterials group at the Beckman Institute. In 2008 he also became a professor of physics at UIUC.

He has published more than 300 papers in technical journals and books. He is first editor of Phonons in semiconductor nanostructures (1993) and co-editor of Contemporary Topics in Semiconductor Spintronics (2017), among others.

He held the Hitachi LTD Chair on Quantum Materials as a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan in 1992. He was also a visiting professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland in 2000.

From 1981-1983, Leburton worked at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC) as a visiting assistant professor. In 1983 he joined the faculty as an assistant professor. He became an associate Professor in 1987 and a full professor in 1991. He worked with Karl Hess, co-director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and became one of the original faculty members at the Beckman Institute in 1989.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Leburton began to study quantum wires. He developed simulation tools to study quantum confinement using a combination of solid-state physics principles and device simulation. He was the first to develop a technique for Monte Carlo simulation of non-linear transport in quantum wires.

Leburton worked as a research scientist at the Siemens AG research laboratory in Munich, Germany from 1979 to 1981.

Jean-Pierre Leburton received his Licence (B.Sc.) in Physics in 1971 and his Doctorat (Ph.D.) in 1978 from the University of Liège, Belgium.

Jean-Pierre Leburton ((1949-03-04)March 4, 1949, Liège, Belgium-) is the Gregory E. Stillman Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He is also a full-time faculty member in the Nanoelectronics and Nanomaterials group of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. He is known for his work on semiconductor theory and simulation, and on nanoscale quantum devices including quantum wires, quantum dots, and quantum wells. He studies and develops nanoscale materials with potential electronic and biological applications.

Jean-Pierre Leburton was born on (1949-03-04)March 4, 1949 to Edmond Jules Leburton and Charlotte (Joniaux) Leburton in Liège, Belgium. His father, at one time Prime Minister of Belgium, sparked Jean-Pierre Leburton's interest in physics.