C. Peter Flynn (August 18, 1935 – October 27, 2011) was a Professor of Physics and of Materials Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
[1][2] Professor Flynn was on the faculty of the University of Illinois from 1960 until 2011 and served as the director of the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory from 1978 until 1987.
He pioneered the technique of molecular beam epitaxy, a method of growing crystalline solids from layers of selected elements.
He was the son of Francis Johnson Flynn, a police constable in the village of Hovingham, and his wife, Edith Hannah, a local war-time nurse.
In 1960, Peter moved to the United States to take a post-doctoral position with the Physics Department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he worked until May 2011.