Frank W.A. Dirne

“The most important motivator in my work is my constant drive for innovation, delivering results and stimulating people.”

Frank Dirne is director of the NanoLab@TU/e, a facility that offers nanofabrication and analysis to the highest standards to enable world-class fundamental nanoscience research.

Dirne has extensive experience leading complex technical service organizations such as the NanoLab@TU/e. He was previously the managing director of the Kavli Nanolab at Delft University of Technology. In his 27-year career with Philips, Dirne worked as research scientist, project leader, group leader and eventually department head. One of his strengths is making groups of specialists work as one coherent team.

Dirne has a background in thin film technology, with a decade of research into thin film magnetic heads for digital recording. From magnetic heads he moved into thin film passive components (capacitors and resistors), and from there into micro- and nanodevice research. Under Dirne’s leadership, the Philips MiPlaza Thin Film Facilities group developed into a world-class industrial R&D infrastructure with a solid external orientation.

Frank Dirne holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering (1985) from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). From 1985 onwards, he worked in the Magnetism Group of Philips Research Laboratories Eindhoven as a project leader and a research scientist. In 1992, Dirne moved to Philip Components to work on magnetic heads and in 1995 to Philips Passive Components to be a project leader and cluster leader. From 1999 to 2012, Dirne was leader of the Thin Film Facilities at Philips MiPlaza (now Philips Innovation Services). In 2012, he took a position at Delft University of Technology as managing director of the Kavli Nanolab. In 2020, he joined TU/e as Director of the NanoLab@TU/e.