Didier de Fontaine is Professor of Materials Science at UC Berkeley. He received his M.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from University of Louvain in Belgium in 1955, his Ph.D. in Materials Science from Northwestern University in 1967. His research interests cover the area of phase transformations in alloys, crystallography and thermodynamics of phase changes, particularly ordering reactions and phase separation. He has over 225 publications in the fields of Materials Science and Condensed Matter Physics, including two major review articles for "Solid State Physics".

He has numerous honors including Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Materials Research Society Turnbull Lecturer. He had been for many years in editorial boards of many professional societies and committees, including American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, American Crystallographic Association, American Physical Society, etc.