Arizona State University to open new photonics center
Phoenix, AZ--Arizona State University will establish a new Center for Photonics Innovation. The Arizona Board of Regents recently approved establishment of the center, which will combine university research and teaching resources in electrical engineering, physics, materials science and engineering, and bioengineering.
The center’s research focuses on semiconductor photonic materials and devices and their applications, which include communications, information processing, sensing, imaging, solar cells, solid state lighting, medical instruments and technologies used in environmental-protection efforts.
The new Center for Photonics Innovation will be directed by Yong-Hang Zhang, a professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.
"Among the center’s primary goals," Zhang said, "are to engage more ASU researchers from varied science and engineering specialties in efforts to advance fundamental knowledge of photon-matter interactions, pursue more use-inspired device and system applications, and “more active entrepreneurship development.”
An equally high priority is to provide opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to participate in advanced research and education in the growing photonics field “that will better prepare them for future careers,” Zhang said.
“We’re committed not only to achieving new discoveries and promoting commercialization of emerging technologies but to a high academic standard for developing our students into first-rate science and engineering scholars and researchers,” he said.
The new center is an outgrowth of the Center for Nanophotonics, founded in 2006 as part of the Arizona Institute of Nano-Electronics at ASU.
In addition to Zhang, work at the new Center for Photonics Innovation will be led by electrical engineers Ning, Diaz, Yu and Vasileska, along with Stephen Goodnick, Ron Roedel and Brian Skromme, materials engineer Jian Li, bioengineer Bruce Towe, and physicists Ponce, Smith, Tsen, Jose Menendez and Martha McCartney.
For more information about the center, visit the website http://photonics.asu.edu/
Stephen G. Anderson | Director, Industry Development - SPIE
Stephen Anderson is a photonics industry expert with an international background and has been actively involved with lasers and photonics for more than 30 years. As Director, Industry Development at SPIE – The international society for optics and photonics – he is responsible for tracking the photonics industry markets and technology to help define long-term strategy, while also facilitating development of SPIE’s industry activities. Before joining SPIE, Anderson was Associate Publisher and Editor in Chief of Laser Focus World and chaired the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar. Anderson also co-founded the BioOptics World brand. Anderson holds a chemistry degree from the University of York and an Executive MBA from Golden Gate University.