National Medal Of Technology Recipient, Andrew Gossard

Arthur Gossard, UC Santa Barbara Research Professor and Professor Emeritus of Materials, Electrical and Computer Engineering, was recently named one of the eight recipients of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation presented by the White House. The National Medal of Technology and Innovation is an annual recognition given to individuals, teams, or companies whose efforts have made a long-lasting impact on “America’s competitiveness, standard of living, and quality of life through technological innovation, and to recognize those who have made substantial contributions to strengthening the nation’s technological workforce”, as stated by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Gossard has contributed to advancing the field of science with his work on molecular beam epitaxy, the growth of quantum wells, superlattices, magnetic semiconductors, and metal/semiconductor nanocomposites and their applications to high performance electrical and optical devices and the physics of low-dimensional structures. He is affiliated with The Institute for Energy Efficiency and Center for Energy Efficient Materials. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Science.

Newly Elected Members to the National Academy of Inventors 

UC Santa Barbara faculty members, John Bowers, Craig Hawker, Umesh Mishra, and Galen Stucky, have recently been elected to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Created in 2010 as a 501(c)3 non-profit institution, the NAI recognizes inventors with patents issued by the United State Patent and Trademark Office, “enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor innovative students and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society”. It currently has over 3,000 individual members from 200 different institutions.

John Bowers serves as Professor of ECE of Institute for Energy Efficiencey and the Center for Energy Energy Efficient Materials, and Fred Kavli Chair of Nanotechnology. Interested energy efficiency and optoelectric devices for the next generation of optical networks, meaning using both electronic and photonic elements on the same silicon-based chip, computers will be able to operate faster and use less energy. Bowers has published 466 journal papers and holds 54 patents.

Craig J. Hawker’s research lies in macromolecular systems, polymeric thin films, and nanoparticles. Polymer technology holds great promise in drug delivery applications and efficient energy storage. Hawker is the director of California Nanosystems Institute, Dow Materials Institute, and Co-Director of the Materials Research Lab at UC Santa Barbara. He also holds the Alan and Ruth Heeger Chair in Interdisciplinary Science and is a Clarke Professor.

Umesh Mishra’s main research focus is in gallium nitride (GaN) electronics, utilizing the wide band-gap semiconductor material to create renewable energy sources and more energy efficient power distribution. Faculty member since 1990, Mishra is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, a member of the campus’s Solid State Lighting & Energy Electronics Center and is the Donald W. Whittier Chair in Electrical Engineering. He is also affiliated with PowerAmerica and co-founded Transphorm, a power conversion based company in Goleta, CA.

Galen Stucky specializes in organic/inorganic interface chemistry in the hopes of synthesizing new material based on biomolecular assembly. These complex materials can be converted into desired forms for applications in optics, catalysis, energy storage, energy conversion and separation. Stucky has 781 publications and 34 patents. An application of his work in interface chemistry has been his development of the hemostatic therapeutic agent, which stops blood flow deep in wounds and also prevents infection. Stucky is a Professor in Chemistry and Biochemistry, Materials Department of the College of Engineering, and a member of the Interdepartmental Program in Biomolecular Science and Engineering. In 2006, he was appointment the E. Khashoggi Industries, LLC Professor in Letters and Science. He was elected into the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2013.

A version of this story appeared on p. 14 of the Thursday, Jan. 14 print edition of the Daily Nexus.

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