Frances Hellman is a physicist who was dean of the division of mathematical and physical sciences at the University of California, Berkeley from 2015 until 2021.

She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with high honors in physics from Dartmouth College in 1978.

After receiving her Ph.D., Hellman then served as a postdoctoral fellow at Bell Laboratories from 1985 to 1987, focusing on thin-film magnetism.

Hellman is a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and received their Joseph F. Keithley Award For Advances in Measurement Science in 2006.

The Hellman family is involved philanthropically with a variety of causes, including the University of California.